Sorted by date Results 1 - 20 of 20
On Sunday, Feb. 16, Anna Tollfeldt was fired from her job at the U.S. Forest Service. Tollfeldt moved to Wrangell in 2022 and began working for the Forest Service the following summer. She and her partner (who is employed by the Forest Service and opted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation) took out a mortgage on a house in town, and the couple planned to stay here indefinitely. But now, a future in Wrangell is no longer a guarantee. With the loss of her job and the unpredictability...
The barge ramp, freight staging and storage area has been downtown for decades, but maybe not the next decade. The borough assembly has created a six-member special committee “to review and oversee the transition of barge service operations to the 6-Mile mill site property.” The borough purchased the former mill property for $2.5 million in 2022, with the intent of developing it or selling or leasing it to private parties to develop for industrial uses. The intent behind moving the barge ramp and freight yard to 6-Mile would be to open up the...
The Alaska district attorney’s office has dropped drug-related charges against Wrangell residents Cooper Seimears, 39, Jacob Marshall, 29, and McKenna Harding, 29. Marshall remained in custody as of Feb. 21 for violating his terms of release on a previous charge, while Seimears was released once the charges were dropped. Harding was the sole defendant to post bail before the charges were dropped on Feb. 13. The initial charges came after police executed dual search warrants on the Seimears residence at 820 Zimovia Ave. and the H...
A particular place in history awaits this year’s Fourth of July royalty, as the fundraising competition marks its 75th anniversary. It began in 1950, when Pat Lewis won with her bake sale earnings, estimated at $405. Over the years, food booths and raffle ticket sales have become the primary fundraisers for those vying for queen or king. It is an intense monthlong June marathon that reaps big rewards for the contestants and the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce’s Fourth of July activities budget. The chamber is looking for royalty candidates to sign...
Feb. 26, 1925 Life in Wrangell this winter is very different from what it has been in former years. During the past two decades there has not been enough traffic by dog teams in this region to attract any attention. But this winter Wrangell resembles Nome or Iditarod with its streets congested with dog teams that are leaving here daily for the Cassiar mining district in British Columbia. There are three outfits now on the Stikine en route from Wrangell to Telegraph Creek, B.C., and a dozen more men will leave this week for the Cassiar. Feb. 24,...
ASH WEDNESDAY 7 to 8 a.m., noon to 1 p.m. and 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, at the pavilion downtown. Pastor Sue Bahleda of Island of Faith Lutheran Church will be available to impose ashes for those wanting to mark the day. CLIMATE SOLUTIONS EXHIBIT from the University Corporation for Science Education (a nonprofit of more than 130 North American colleges and universities) will be at the Nolan Center lobby through Friday, Feb. 28. No admission fee to see the exhibit. The center is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. HOMESCHOOL HANGOUT 10...
The scope of mass firings at U.S. Forest Service offices around Southeast Alaska is becoming clearer as former and current employees confirm the numbers. The agency’s public information offices have not provided any details of the dismissals. Nearly all U.S. Forest Service employees at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau have been fired in the large-scale, ongoing purge of the federal government workforce undertaken by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, according to officials and former employees. In Petersburg,...
A federal workers union expects a total of at least 1,378 federal employees in Alaska with probationary status to be fired by the Trump administration. David Owens, a national representative with the American Federation of Government Employees, said the union did not have current numbers of those already fired as of Thursday, Feb. 20, but expects the Trump administration to fire all probationary employees. Out of the 1,378 employees, 331 are veterans, he said. He cited an Office of Personnel Management database in giving the following...
The school district and borough share a money problem. And it’s a community problem that needs an answer this spring. The schools need more money to continue even the basic programs for Wrangell’s 260 students. The state funding formula over the past eight years has been flat, which is to say far short of keeping up with inflation, which is to say wholly inadequate. The borough assembly has tried pitching in, but its check-writing ability is limited by two factors: A state law that puts a cap on local contributions to school district budgets, a...
It may not look like it matters to most Alaskans, but it does. Not just for the money it would raise for the state treasury, but because it highlights a 45-year-old problem. A first-year Wasilla senator has introduced legislation to collect state corporate income taxes from Hilcorp, a privately held company that bought out BP’s North Slope assets in 2020. Similar legislation has been introduced in past years but failed to pass. It’s not that Hilcorp is cheating on its taxes, it’s simply following state law, which has always exempted such priva...
The school district has a separate savings account of nearly $1.2 million, which would more than cover its expected revenue shortfall of $767,016 for the upcoming school year. The fund is reserved for capital improvement projects, but it is within the school board’s purview to reallocate the funds if needed. The district has been building the fund since 1998, with only small withdrawals in recent years. Without major new revenues or spending cuts, the district’s operating budget reserve fund — a separate account from the building impro...
Warren Hill spent more than two decades working at the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, which spans 4 million acres of coastline, forests, lakes and glaciers in Southeast Alaska. Last summer, he was promoted to serve as maintenance supervisor, in addition to his roles as carpenter and mechanic. But because Hill was starting a new role, he was on probationary status when President Donald Trump ’s administration began firing thousands of federal workers who had less civil service protection. “I’m furious,” he said. “I am just a few years...
After just under two years in business, Island Tire Repair closed down its operations last week. “Hate to say it but the business is shut down as of today at 3 p.m.,” according to the company’s Feb. 17 post on the Wrangell Community Facebook page. “Going to have a sale at the shop tomorrow starting at 10 a.m.” Business owner John Hurst did not respond to messages from the Sentinel asking for more information. “Everything is for sale,” the Facebook post said. “I want to say thank you to all my customers for being with us for these last two...
In a telephonic town hall Feb. 19, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the recent mass firing of probationary federal employees violated the law and lacked “respect and dignity” toward the workers who lost their jobs, which in Alaska include more than 100 employees of the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and other agencies. In a call that drew more than 1,000 Alaskans, Murkowski also said that President Donald Trump’s efforts to withhold federal funding that had already been approved by Congress “cannot be allowed to stand.” “If we in...
Hospice of Wrangell recognized the following people by thanking them for their help with the group’s activities this past year with Hospice Hearts at the annual meeting on Feb. 17: Jim Bailey, Bob Bue, Artha DeRuyter, Donna Rohwer, Debbie Werner, Denise Fode, Ronan Rooney, Pastor Sue Bahleda, Donna Kuntz, Katie Fitzjarrald, Laurie Overbay and Kathy Watkins. In addition, we give big thanks to the following groups for their help and support: Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department, Wrangell Wrestlers, KSTK, Nolan Center staff and the Stikine S...
Monday, Feb. 17 Agency assist: Ambulance. Reckless driving. Tuesday, Feb. 18 Found property. Reckless driving. Agency assist: Fire Department. Wednesday, Feb. 19 Vehicle accident: Citation issed for negligent driving. Thursday, Feb. 20 Speed complaint. Friday, Feb. 21 Trespass. Report of suspicion of driving under the influence. Traffic stop: Citation issued for failure to provide proof of insurance. Bar check. Saturday, Feb. 22 Noise complaint. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for faulty headlight, citation issued for no proof of insurance. Bar...
PIANO TUNING Piano tuner from Corvine Piano Care plans a March visit if there are enough pianos to be serviced. Contact Alice Rooney at 907-305-0007 to be put on the work list. JOB ANNOUCEMENT Wrangell Senior Center, Southeast Senior Services, a division of Catholic Community Service, is recruiting for a driver/assistant cook at $17/hour, 25 hours a week. Apply online at www.ccsak.org/jobs. For more information contact Solvay Gillen at 907-874-2066. FREE ADS Do you have something to sell? Having a garage sale? Looking to buy something?...
For her senior project, Clara Waddington hopes to cement the Tlingit language and culture at the forefront of the Wrangell educational experience. She is engraving metal signs with the Tlingit translations for different English-language signs across the school. The Tlingit language signs will be hung beside the other signs, similar to the style of the Tlingit words in Wrangell IGA displayed beneath the English tags. So far, Waddington has found direct translations for "Wrangell High School,"...
This year's girls high school basketball team has had quite a roller coaster of a season. Some days they're unstoppable, and opponents have no answer for the sharpshooting acumen of Christina Johnson or the post-presence of Alana Harrison and Alexis Easterly. On other days, the offense falls flat and the shots simply fail to fall. In their two-game homestand against Petersburg on Feb. 21-22, the Wrangell homecoming crowd witnessed the full spectrum of the girls basketball team. They fell on...
Toward the end of the first millennium, Vikings were known for their effectiveness as a warrior culture. Their intention was not to win land but instead to pillage and plunder, seizing all the resources they could glean from enemy villages. When Petersburg stepped off their boat to play in Wrangell last weekend, one can only imagine this is how they wanted the two-game away trip to go, a reflection of the tired tropes of their mascot: Get off the boat, win a couple of battles (games), hop back o...