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The Wrangell school board will continue to evaluate its COVID-19 mitigation plan at its next meeting, scheduled for Monday. As case numbers continue to decline from the severe spike caused by the Omicron variant in December and January, some Alaska districts have voted for optional masking on school grounds. Effective Feb. 28, the Anchorage School District will make face masks optional for students and staff, Superintendent Deena Bishop announced last Friday in a letter to families. “As a career educator, I understand how critical it is to focu...
The Alaska Department of Transportation is asking anyone interested in taking ownership of the nearly 60-year-old Malaspina to speak up by March 7. The state has been spending about $75,000 a month to keep the unused ferry moored and insured at Ward Cove in Ketchikan for more than two years. The ship has not carried passengers or vehicles since late 2019, and requires tens of millions of dollars of repairs, steel replacement work and new engines to go back into service, according to the Transportation Department. “Holy crap, why don’t we sel...
An award-winning film chronicling the Metlakatla boys basketball team's run to the 2018 state championship will make its Wrangell screening debut next month. "Alaskan Nets" plays at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 5, at the Nolan Center. Tickets are $20. Californian Jeff Harasimowicz, director and producer of the documentary film, said he got the idea in 2017 when he was scrolling sports stories, which he loves, on ESPN.com and came across a 2016 photo story by photojournalist Samuel Wilson about the...
The borough is considering purchasing the 38.59 acres at the former sawmill site at 6-Mile Zimovia Highway for a possible tourism or other collaboration with Sealaska, the regional Native corporation for Southeast. Finance Director Mason Villarma said the borough met with Sealaska CEO Anthony Mallott on Feb. 9. Discussions, which are still in a very preliminary stage, included a potential partnership with Sealaska for the property as a deep-water port for tourism or a specialty mill for the corporation’s wood products division. Sealaska o...
Feb. 23, 1922 The Firemen’s Annual Benefit Ball on the evening of Washington’s Birthday was well attended and a huge success socially. Apparatus from the fire hall was used most effectively in the decorative scheme. Carl Carlson acted as floor manager. The net proceeds amounted to $49.15. This increases the accident fund to $435. The Parent-Teacher Association served lunch upstairs during the dance. The proceeds from the lunch, which amounted to about $25, will be used by the PTA to help defray the school’s expenses of participating in the i...
What has been talked about for months has finally happened: Ottesen's True Value is now Ottesen's Ace Hardware. The sale was finalized on Feb. 15 to David Roemhildt, of Cordova, who has big changes in store for the business, but some things will stay exactly the same. "The thing I kept hearing from everyone was, 'Oh, that's a good store. It's got a lot of history,'" Roemhildt said. "There's a lot of goodwill and customer loyalty to this location and this family. It's going to remain Ottesen's,...
The Wrangell Ranger District wants to restore a parking area at Roosevelt Harbor. The problem is about 70 vehicles in various stages of decay on top of it, going back a couple of decades at the site on Zarembo Island, about 12 miles southwest of the Wrangell City Dock. Roosevelt Harbor is vulnerable to pollutants and sediment from runoff at the parking lot, said District Ranger Clint Kolarich, of the Wrangell Ranger District last Tuesday. The harbor is a popular spot for hunters and campers,...
Residents have until Saturday afternoon to get rid of scrap metal, free of charge, including vehicles. Juneau-based Channel Construction will have its barge at the former sawmill site at 6.3-Mile Zimovia Highway and is accepting any type of scrap metal, as long as any oil, gasoline or other fuels and fluids have been drained, the borough announced last week. The company collects scrap metal throughout Southeast, hauling it south for proper disposal or recycling. In late 2018, Channel Construction picked up an estimated 50 tons of scrap on one...
The U.S. Forest Service wants to clean up and resurface the parking area at Roosevelt Harbor. Not because the abandoned vehicles are unsightly, though many are getting wrapped around the axle with plant life. It’s because the oil, gasoline and fluids that leak from the cars, trucks or ATVs can seep into and through the soil and into the waters at Zarembo Island. The first task is to identify all the owners so that the agency can hire a contractor to move the 70 or so vehicles off the lot, clean it up, regrade it, restore and improve drainage a...
Look at the post office package shelves, the boxes left at people’s doors and the empties stuffed into the trash and it’s clear that Wrangell — just like the rest of the country — is primed to shop from Amazon. Free shipping is the biggest incentive to sign up for Amazon Prime. That, and the website sells everything anyone could ever want or need, plus millions of items we never knew we wanted or needed. And maybe don’t need, but free shipping is such an enticement. No minimum purchase, no hassles, just click and wait for delivery. Let Amazo...
Referring to Larry Persily’s opinion piece, “It’s time more Republicans stood up to Trump” (Feb. 9 Sentinel), I am shocked how a Democrat can sound so undemocratic, intolerant, self-righteous and self-contradictory. While you stress that you do not want to take away Trump’s phone, internet access or deny him his First Amendment rights, you urge Republicans to muzzle him, to “check him into a room at a budget hotel that only has basic cable” as you put it. In other words, you are asking Republicans to do the highly undemocratic deeds for you...
In October 2021, Wrangell Mayor Steve Prysunka spoke about the abandoned Johnny Mountain Mine before the Wrangell borough assembly to highlight irresponsible mining practices in British Columbia. As the new owner of Iskut property which includes the abandoned mine, through this letter we would like to share with the residents of Wrangell the multiyear and multimillion-dollar voluntary reclamation activities Seabridge Gold is undertaking to reclaim the Johnny Mountain Mine site back to its original pre-mine condition. When Seabridge Gold acquire...
The port commission has voted to increase most of Wrangell’s port and harbors rates, generally about 2% per year for the next five years, sending the new fee schedule to the borough assembly for consideration. The new rates would take effect this July and apply to most port and harbors services, including long- and short-term storage and haul-out rates at the Marine Service Center, transient and reserved moorage in the harbors, electricity hookups, use of the gridiron and hoists. The borough had generally been raising port and harbor rates a...
State Transportation Department officials last week told legislators the ferry system needed to quickly hire at least 166 new crew in order to meet minimum staffing levels for this summer’s schedule starting in May. “Staffing goals for the summer season will not be met at current recruitment rates,” the department reported in its presentation to the House Transportation Committee on Feb. 15. Insufficient staffing could result in scaling back ferry service plans. About 350 new hires would be even better, covering vacancies due to sick leave and...
A Southeast drug enforcement task force seized 24 grams of methamphetamine valued at $3,600, along with $11,440 in cash Feb. 15 after searching three homes in Wrangell. A man and a woman were detained but not arrested, pending further investigation, Police Chief Tom Radke said. The investigation, which has been underway for a couple of months, revolved around a package mailed to Wrangell, believed to come from north in the state, Radke said. The task force — Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs, or SEACAD — consists of police departments fro...
Last Thursday morning, seniors Jamie Early and Kendra Meissner lugged a crab pot filled with their books through the halls of Wrangell High School. It was part of Spirit Week and "Anything but a backpack" day. It was a combined effort between the cousins, much like many other things they do, including their senior project. Early, 18, and Meissner, 17, decided in October to tackle the Evergreen Agricultural Testing Site (EATS) garden for their project, cleaning up weeds, preparing soil beds,...
Got a question about getting started in gardening? Need to know about potatoes? Southeast Master Gardeners can help you plow ahead with answers. A new program called “Weedy Wednesdays,” offered by the Southeast Alaska Master Gardeners Association, will offer four one-hour online question-and-answer sessions with various areas of focus. On March 16, gardening experts will answer previously submitted questions on potato growing in a session “Spuds 101.” March 23 will cover seed starting; March 30 will be about preparing a new garden for use; an...
Almost three years after pulling pollution monitors — called Ocean Rangers — from large cruise ships, Gov. Mike Dunleavy has proposed legislation to replace the onboard state personnel with regular inspections by shoreside staff while ships are in port and underway. The Ocean Rangers program was written into state law when voters approved a citizen’s initiative in 2006 to step up oversight of the cruise ship industry. However, start-of-season and random inspections during the summer “are a more effective use of available funds,” Emma Pokon, dep...
Archery is on target at the community gym through March 25 to keep the blues from the winter cold and the winter rain at bay. Instructor Winston Davies oversees the activity, and has a few bows, arrows and sheaths to clip to your belt or waistband on hand if you don't have one of your own. It's not an instructional class per se, but Davies is happy to give a few pointers to people who've been removed from the sport for a while, even if it's been nearly a decade. Davies taught math and science...
Alaska’s state housing agency has distributed more than $243 million in financial aid the past year to help renters hurt economically by the pandemic and will soon embark on a $50 million federally funded program to help homeowners, too. The aid can go toward eligible homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments, and may also be applied to current and past-due property taxes, insurance premiums and utility bills, the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. announced Friday. Preregistration for Alaska Housing Homeowner Assistance opens Monday at Ala...
Art lovers and artists can help sustain public radio station KSTK with their contributions. The station recently kicked off a fundraising effort that will culminate in an art auction and hopefully $5,000. The art auction March 18 at the Nolan Center will allow the public to bid on sculptures, paintings, jewelry or any other donated art. "We're on this balancing blade. Our business model is based on local donations and contributions and special events and raffles," Station Manager Cindy Sweat...
Stikine Middle School wrestlers traveled to Ketchikan last weekend to compete in the Schoenbar Regional Championships. The squad came away with 19 top placements. There were nine first place wins, six second place wins and four third place wins by Wrangell wrestlers. The team placed first with the most pins in the least time. Overall, the team placed second behind Juneau’s Floyd Dryden Middle School in points. The wrestlers who took first place in their weight classes were Katelyn Gillen, Christina Johnson, Kourtney Barnes, Hailey Cook, A...
Homecoming at Wrangell High School began with Spirit Week and ended in three hard-fought wins and one loss for the varsity basketball teams. Petersburg's varsity and junior varsity teams came to town to compete against the Wolves amid pep rallies, retirement ceremonies and the crowning of Wrangell's royal homecoming court. A taco lunch and pep rally kicked off the run-up to last Friday's and Saturday's games by enlivening students and staff. Sophomore Mia Wiederspohn organized the Friday pep...
WASHINGTON (AP) - America's national bird is more beleaguered than previously believed, with nearly half of bald eagles tested across the Lower 48 states showing signs of chronic lead exposure, according to a study published Feb. 17. While the bald eagle population has rebounded from the brink of extinction since the U.S. banned the pesticide DDT in 1972, harmful levels of toxic lead were found in the bones of 46% of bald eagles sampled in 38 states from California to Florida, researchers...
An Alaska judge upheld most of the state’s newly redistricted legislative district map on Feb. 15 but overturned a decision that created two East Anchorage Senate seats linked with more politically conservative Eagle River. The judge also ruled in favor of Skagway, which wants to share a House district with the more cruise ship tourism-oriented downtown Juneau than with the Mendenhall Valley portion of the community. A day after the judge’s ruling, the Alaska Redistricting Board met in executive session and later voted 3-2 to appeal the rul...