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The Wrangell High School cross country boys team placed second at the Ketchikan Invitational at Ward Lake last Saturday. Sophomore Daniel Harrison once again led the Wolves, coming in fourth place overall with a time of 16:44.91. Harrison was outpaced by just over a second by Sitka's Trey Demmert, who placed third at 16:43.20. First and second place went to Sitka's Silas Demmert and Annan Weiland, respectively. Wrangell's Boomchain Loucks placed ninth at 17:40.25 out of 88 runners, followed by...
The Wrangell High School swim team competed in two meets at the Ketchikan Invitational competition last weekend, with junior Jack Roberts leading the team with a first-, second- and fifth-place finish. Competing against eight other high schools from throughout Southeast, Wrangell's swimmers had many personal bests and cut down their times significantly, coach Jamie Roberts said. "I'm proud of their performances," she said. "They posted some nice times for an early season meet. They are excited to see what they can do with nine more days of work...
Three years after adopting a pricing plan that adds a surcharge for passenger, vehicle and stateroom fares on popular sailings, the Alaska Marine Highway System has decided to suspend the program for its fall/winter schedule. The ferry system’s “dynamic pricing” added 5% to 50% to ticket prices, depending on the percentage of a ship’s capacity already booked — similar to airlines raising prices as flights fill up. The Alaska Department of Transportation announced the decision last Friday to suspend the surcharges. “Dynamic pricing works when...
Items 1-3: X’átgu S’aaxw/mudshark hat; X’átgu Koodás’/mudshark shirt; Ditlein X’oow/killer whale stranded on a rock robe. According to Portland Art Museum records, former Schools Superintendent Axel Rasmussen obtained the hat and shirt in 1930 from a family member of Chief Shakes VI who died in 1915, and in 1934 he obtained the robe from another family member in Wrangell. According to oral traditional information presented by the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes, these items were removed by Wrangell police after the de...
Whether Alaskans and the other 434 members of the U.S. House will be addressing Rep. Sarah Palin or Rep. Mary Peltola likely will be announced late Wednesday. State elections officials plan to announce that day the final vote tally and election winner under Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system — it’s the deadline for any absentee ballots from overseas to arrive and be added to the count. In-person voting for the election was held Aug. 16. With a near-final ballot count released last Friday evening, more than 190,000 votes had been cast...
At the start of the final week to file for borough assembly, school board or port commission, Wrangell was still short of candidates to fill half of the open seats. The deadline to file for the Oct. 4 municipal election is 4 p.m. Wednesday. As of Monday afternoon, candidates had filed paperwork for four of the eight races on the ballot. Patty Gilbert, who serves on the borough assembly and previously served on the school board, has filed to run for mayor. Steve Prysunka, in his sixth year as mayor, has decided not to seek another term....
Patty Gilbert, who serves on the borough assembly and previously served on the school board, has filed her candidacy papers to run for mayor in the Oct. 4 municipal election. Steve Prysunka, in his sixth year as Wrangell mayor, has decided not to seek another term. Gilbert currently serves as vice-mayor on the assembly. Her term ends in October. She served on the school board 2019-2021, and served on the borough assembly 2016-2019. The deadline to file for municipal office is 4 p.m. Aug. 31 at City Hall. In addition to the mayor’s job, two b...
Wrangell’s two state legislators both received more votes than their challengers in last week’s primary election. With only two candidates in each race, the Aug. 16 primary was a preview of the Nov. 8 general election, when voters again will choose between the same two candidates for the House and Senate seats. Under Alaska’s new elections system, the top vote-getters in the primary, regardless of political party, advance to the general election. Republican Sen. Bert Stedman, of Sitka, in his 19th year in the Legislature, outpolled his Repub...
Online student registration began Monday at wrg.powerschool.com/public for elementary, middle and high schools. For those who need help registering, in-person registration will be held Wednesday at the high school commons from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Fees for elementary registration are $10 for tech and $10 for books. Fees at the middle school are $80 for individual student tech or $125 for families. The activity card for sports participation is $25 per student. Yearbooks are $50 per student. Fees for the high school are $80...
After a mid-July surge to 1,021 COVID-19 infections among tourists at sea in a single week, the state Health Department reports the case count the past two weeks fell to an average of 550 per week. The record number of infections among non-residents, which the state refers to as “at-sea, purpose tourism,” was reported July 20. The July 27 count was down to 517, then 583 on Aug. 3. The state reports COVID statistics once a week, every Wednesday. At-sea cases averaged less than 450 a week from the start of the cruise ship season to mid-July. In...
There are three weeks remaining for candidates to file for election to the borough assembly, school board and port commission, and as of Monday no one had submitted their paperwork to run for office, with most incumbents reporting they were still undecided. The deadline to file is 4 p.m. Aug. 31 at City Hall for a spot on the Oct. 4 municipal election ballot. Mayor Steve Prysunka has announced he is not seeking a third term. In addition to the mayor’s job, two borough assembly seats, three school board seats and two port commission slots w...
Students return to school soon, and Alaska’s larger districts are facing a shortage of school bus drivers. The Anchorage School District was short 75 bus drivers less than two weeks before classes begin on Aug. 18. The shortage could lead to some bus routes being suspended, the superintendent said. The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District contractor was short bus drivers last month to cover 115 routes, and as of last week was advertising: “We need bus drivers and attendants!” The district last week announced reduced service when class...
Candidates have until 4 p.m. Aug. 31 to file their declaration and signature petition at City Hall for a spot on the Oct. 4 municipal election ballot. The offices of mayor, two borough assembly seats, three school board seats and two spots on the port commission will be on the ballot. Mayor Steve Prysunka, who has served two terms (four years), said last week he is not seeking reelection. Before winning his first term as mayor in 2018, Prysunka served three years on the borough assembly. The mayor’s job is a two-year term. The terms also expire...
The Sealaska Corp. board of directors last Friday endorsed Bill Walker for governor and Sen. Lisa Murkowski in her reelection bid for U.S. Senate. The board also announced its opposition to the measure on the Nov. 8 statewide election ballot that would call a constitutional convention to consider revisions to Alaska’s founding laws. “Reassessing Alaska’s constitution could fundamentally endanger not just the rights of all Alaskans, but specifically Native sovereignty,” Jaeleen Kookesh, Sealaska vice president of policy and legal affairs...
The state ferry Tustumena was tied up in Homer for several days last week, lacking enough crew to operate. Due to crew shortages, the Tustumena’s sailings were canceled as of July 26, and were scheduled to resume seven days later on Tuesday, according to an announcement from the Alaska Marine Highway System. “A critical crew shortage required the vessel to stay in port for safety reasons,” the state reported July 28. “We ran out of stewards,” Alaska Department of Transportation Commissioner Ryan Anderson said during a presentation to the Junea...
From Wednesday through Sunday, the schedule for BearFest is loaded with something for all ages, whether games and art workshops or food and educational symposiums. Since the event is focused on bears, there will be bear safety classes, a look at the new Anan Wildlife Observatory for bear viewing, a history of bears in national parks, and bear conservation among other bear-related topics. BearFest organizer Sylvia Ettefagh said in an interview earlier this month that the mission of the five-day...
The plan is to have surveillance cameras in operation at City Dock and the harbors sometime next year. The borough assembly last week approved a $90,983 design contract with Juneau-based RESPEC to prepare plans for the cameras, wiring and server system to store the images. “We’ll get a good percentage of the system up next year,” Steve Miller, port and harbors director, said last Thursday. The total project is estimated at $983,000, Miller said, with $409,000 already in hand from a pair of federal Department of Homeland Security grants. The b...
An additional 40 COVID-19 cases were recorded in Wrangell July 7-13, more than twice as many as in the previous three weeks, according to the Alaska Department of Health website. That’s almost as many cases as were reported in Ketchikan, 43, during the same seven-day period, though the Ketchikan borough has more than six times the population of Wrangell. Of the 713 infections in Wrangell reported to the state since the pandemic count started in March 2020, 172, almost 25%, have come in the past three months. Federal and state health o...
Independent travelers and residents looking to visit Anan Wildlife Observatory apart from tour groups still have a chance to do so. The Forest Service Wrangell ranger district is making last-minute permits available through its office on a weekly basis until Aug. 25, the end of the bear-viewing permits season. Up to four last-minute permits per day will be made available for those who request them the previous week by filling out a form in the district office. “Collection of weekly requests will end Mondays at 4:30 p.m. and permits will be a...
The BearFest photo contest is wide open like an aperture on a starry night. That is, it’s time to click and submit entries focused on bear photos and videos. From now through 11:59 p.m. on July 29, photographers and videographers can post up to five of their favorite Alaska bear photos and/or videos at facebook.com/BFphotocontest2022 for a chance to win a BearFest T-shirt and $50 gift card. Children 16 and under who enter their work have a chance to win a T-shirt and $25 gift card. According to BearFest organizer Ceona Koch, the contest u...
The chamber of commerce will work to raise money over the next nine months or so as it looks ahead to paying for next year’s Fourth of July fireworks and events. The annual royalty raffle is the chamber’s major fundraiser for the summer celebration, and this year’s proceeds are short of what’s needed to fully stage the 2023 Fourth, said Brittani Robbins, executive director of the chamber. The chamber would like to raise an additional $20,000 to $30,000 before next summer to ensure the fireworks, events and prizes can continue at the same le...
The chainsaws are quiet. The laughter and cheers have subsided. The splashing has passed. The Fourth of July celebration and events may be over, but the memories, victories and bragging rights will live on. From catching fish and chopping wood to volunteering and counting raffle tickets, there were plenty of positive outcomes. "I think everything went well considering this is only the second Fourth of July celebration since COVID," said Brittani Robbins, executive director of the chamber of...
Families with children in first through sixth grade still have time to sign up for The Salvation Army’s summer lunch program. The program, which began in June, runs through July 29. Ten spots are still available and there is no deadline to sign up. “This is the second year we have done this program and both years it has been a great (program) for us to do,” said Lt. Jon Tollerud of The Salvation Army in Wrangell. “We believe that providing meals for working families is helpful so that parents can worry a little less during summer about their k...
No one bid on the former Wrangell hospital building, which the borough had offered to sell at a minimum asking price of $830,000. The bidding period was open for a month and closed last Thursday. The property is now available for an over-the-counter sale. “It means that the first person to come in to sign an intent to purchase with a 20% down payment (payment in full within 60 days of signing) would be the buyer,” Borough Clerk Kim Lane explained last Friday. “If that happens, I would then take a resolution to the assembly to approve the sale....
The borough assembly approved a budget for the fiscal year that started last Friday similar to past years — no increase in property tax or sales tax rates, and with more than half of the total spending going to the self-supporting operations of sewage, water, garbage, electricity, port and harbors services. The budget approved by the assembly June 28 includes more than 20 repair, maintenance and improvement projects across the borough and in several departments, including: Repairs and maintenance at the schools, recreation center and pool, i...