Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 29
The borough’s economic development board voted unanimously March 5 to recommend the assembly approve the sale of the former hospital property for $200,000 to Wayne Johnson, a Georgia-based real estate developer. Johnson is planning to demolish the building and construct up to 48 units of condo-style housing, with covered parking. He also wants to purchase six borough-owned vacant lots behind the hospital property, which the borough manager has said would be sold at their appraised value. Regardless of some concerns, economic development b...
Despite a rocky start at the regional tournament, the Wrangell boys varsity basketball team defeated Metlakatla in their final game Saturday to take second place in Southeast, earning a spot at the Division II state tournament. Head coach Cody Angerman felt that one goal for the team all season was to work toward being at their best at regionals. "I think that as the season went on, we got better," he said. Entering the tournament in Sitka as the No. 3 seed, the Wolves lost their first game on...
With the loss of several cruise ship stops this summer, Wrangell may not exceed last year’s cruise visitor count as had been originally projected. Wrangell recently lost 14 stops from the cruise line American Queen Voyages, which filed for bankruptcy last month, canceling its 186-passenger Ocean Victory to Southeast Alaska. This translates to a loss of $33,000 in port fees and as many as 2,600 summer visitors for Wrangell. The town also lost the stops of three mid-size cruise ships which are now going to Klawock, taking about 2,200 berths o...
Leading Alaska legislators said there is little appetite for spending from savings to pay a super-sized Permanent Fund dividend this year, likely killing a proposal from Gov. Mike Dunleavy. In December, the governor proposed spending almost $2.3 billion on a dividend of roughly $3,500 per recipient this fall under an unused formula in state law. That would result in a $1 billion deficit in the state budget and require spending from the state’s Constitutional Budget Reserve, but as a draft spending plan takes shape in the House, top members of b...
March 13, 1924 Work will begin about the first of the month on a third story for the Wrangell Hotel. E. G. W. Morris will have charge of the work. In addition to the work of adding a third story, there will be many improvements throughout the entire building. Hot and cold running water will be supplied in all rooms. Twelve or 15 baths will be distributed over the building. When the third story is completed the Wrangell Hotel will have 76 rooms. The Wrangell Hotel, when the addition is completed, will be ahead of the town, but there is little...
After the borough assembly agreed last month that a port commission proposal to require boat owners to carry marine insurance needed a lot more work, the two elected bodies got together last week to workshop changes. The assembly and port commission were generally in consensus over details to be added to the original proposal, like a minimum required coverage, a maneuverability assessment of vessels, a minimum vessel size to require insurance, increased management rights to keep out unseaworthy boats, exemptions for transient vessels and the co...
After filling the job in the past in a temporary capacity, Tory Houser officially accepted the position as U.S. Forest Service Wrangell District ranger on March 4. "It feels great, and a lot of responsibility," she said. Houser has spent 21 years with the Forest Service, including eight years in Wrangell, mostly as recreation officer, although she has filled in before from time to time as acting district ranger. She said that while those previous experiences prepared her in some ways, "I'll need...
No question last year was pretty miserable for Alaska’s commercial fishing industry — the people who catch and clean salmon; the processors that buy, prep and ship the fish; the communities that depend on the summer jobs and tax revenues. And no question that this year is looking about as dark, or darker. The head of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute recently described last year as “rock bottom” for prices paid to fishers and weak markets for processors, later amending that statement to say that this year is scrapping another layer deeper...
Even in winter, there are hot opportunities. And since the state’s prospects for economic well-being are in short supply these days — like being short of buyers for Alaska salmon, running short of energy for Southcentral residents and businesses, and falling woefully short of funding for public schools — the state needs to seize whatever unexpected opportunities arise. Alaskans have long prided themselves on ingenuity, making something anew from the discard piles left behind by others. In this case, there are six ice-class liquefied natur...
I thought that moving to Wrangell from Vermont might provide slightly warmer weather, but during my first week here I've been proven wrong. I grew up and have lived most of my life in a town called Mendon, Vermont, which isn't all that different in population from Wrangell, though completely landlocked and much snowier (I won't say colder). So why did I make the trek all the way to Wrangell from Vermont? Well, part of it was the adventure, and part of it was to write for the Sentinel. I...
By Frank Rue It’s hard to believe that the abandoned Tulsequah Chief mine, just across the Alaska border in Canada, has been discharging toxic, acidic and metals-laden waste water into the Taku River watershed for almost 70 years. A kaleidoscope of Canadian excuses, corporate bankruptcies, and hollow promises have meant no meaningful, on-the-ground effort has been made to clean up this mess in Southeast Alaska’s top salmon-producing river system. The mine site is about 40 air miles northeast of Juneau. Alaskans have been pressing to have the pr...
Regarding the editorial that appeared in the Wrangell Sentinel on Feb. 28: As a lifelong resident of Southeast Alaska, I’ve experienced the growth of the mega tourist industry and, yes, some of it is good for the economy. Along with that comes negative things, which should also be considered when deciding to jump into the fray. A few things to be explored are hands-on talks with the people of the other communities, not just the officials. Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Sitka have been totally overrun with shops owned by the tour industry and o...
Wrangell will go without state ferry service for the last week of March and first week of April as the ships are scheduled to meet other needs across coastal communities. There will be no northbound service to Wrangell between March 22 and April 10, and no southbound stops in town between March 25 and April 12. The schedule will return to normal later in April, with a weekly northbound sailing on Fridays and a weekly southbound stop on Mondays. That will switch to southbound on Wednesdays and northbound on Sundays with the start of the summer s...
There’s a new solution in the works to deal with the large pile of tires at the solid waste transfer station, often referred to as “Mount Tires.” This new solution would include moving the tires to the former 6-Mile sawmill property and then shipping them out of town as part of a deal with the tenant at the borough-owned waterfront site. The borough manager is negotiating on a longer-term lease or rental agreement at the former mill site with Channel Construction. If they can reach a deal, ideally Channel Construction would remove the tires...
Russian fish flooding global markets and other economic forces beyond the state’s border have created dire conditions for Alaska’s seafood industry. Now key state legislators are seeking to establish a task force to come up with responses to the low prices, lost market share, lost jobs and lost income being suffered by fishers, fishing companies and fishing communities. The measure, Senate Concurrent Resolution 10, was introduced on March 1 and is sponsored by the Senate Finance Committee. “Alaska’s seafood industry is in a tailspin from fa...
High school senior Sean McDonald has a lot of history with the Wrangell IGA supermarket. "I've worked at the store since October of 2022," he said. "I'm really closely related with the owners. They grew up as a big part of my life, and I've known them for a long time. And then, before they owned it, my grandpa also worked in the store for over 30 years, so I really grew up with the store and I'm familiar with it." It was that familiarity that led to McDonald's decision for his senior project to...
Trident Seafoods reported last week it was “entering the final stages of closing deals for three of its Alaska shoreside plants,” including its operations in Ketchikan and Petersburg. The Seattle-based company — the largest seafood harvesting and processing company in the United States — announced in December it planned to sell four of its Alaska plants as it restructures its operations amid weak markets. In addition to Petersburg and Ketchikan, Trident said it wanted to sell its processing operations in Kodiak and at False Pass in the Aleutia...
The Lady Wolves’ struggle through a difficult season ended at the Southeast basketball tournament at Sitka. The game last Wednesday was a tough loss to the Haines Lady Bears, 43-42. Then on Thursday, Wrangell lost to the Craig Lady Panthers, 37-31, and was eliminated from the tourney. The Metlakatla Miss Chiefs won the tournament, with Haines taking second place. Both are headed to the state championships in Anchorage this week. In the first game, Wrangell trailed Haines at halftime by eight points but bounced back to take the lead in the t...
Wrangell eighth grader Kourtney Barnes earned the top spot in her weight bracket for the second year in a row at the state's biggest middle school wrestling tournament. It was the third time in three years that she faced Jordynn Colby of North Pole in the finals. Two of Kourtney's schoolmates placed second and fourth at the tournament. "We had a capstone weekend to our wrestling season," said head coach Jack Carney, who added that the wrestling community considers the Tanana Invitational...
Just as soon as its indoor Winter Workout Challenge ended, the Parks and Recreation Department moved outdoors - literally. The Outdoor Challenge, which started March 1, is similar to the indoor event. Participants keep track of their activities, and the runners, walkers, bikers - or whatever their exercise - with the most points win prizes. "We are just encouraging people to get outside and move their bodies," said Devyn Johnson, recreation coordinator for the department. The goal is completing...
Participants in last year’s Toughman Triathlon in Wrangell will have to step up their game if they want to join the challenge of running a 100-mile ultramarathon at the end of June. Former resident Nicholas Howell posted on the Wrangell Community Group’s Facebook page last month that they “will be changing it up this year” for the annual Tongass Toughman by presenting a new challenge: a 100-mile run around Wrangell Island. According to his Facebook post, he announced the news “so individuals have something to train for.” Howell also stated in h...
A new analysis of nearly 25,000 fish scales offers more evidence that the millions of pink salmon churned out by Alaska fish hatcheries could be harming wild sockeye salmon populations when they meet in the ocean, according to the scientists who authored the study. The new peer-reviewed paper, published last month in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, produced for the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, analyzed growth rates that could be deduced from the fish scales, similar to yearly growth rings on a tree. The paper was...
Monday, March 4 Parking complaint. Agency assist: Ambulance. Citizen assist. Tuesday, March 5 Agency assist: Ambulance. Wednesday, March 6 Agency assist: Hoonah Police Department. Thursday, March 7 Suspicious noise. Agency assists: Ambulance. Civil issue. Friday, March 8 Found property. Parking complaint. Agency assist: Fire Department. Saturday, March 9 Traffic stop: Warning for expired registration. Sunday, March 10 Nothing to report....
Alaska law enforcement officers now must obtain a warrant before using aircraft to scope the area around a person’s home with binoculars or cameras with zoom lenses, the state’s highest court ruled in a decision released March 8. The Alaska Supreme Court ruling comes in a case that dates to 2012, when Alaska State Troopers received a tip from an informant that John William McKelvey III was growing marijuana on his property in a sparsely populated area north of Fairbanks. According to the ruling, McKelvey’s property was heavily wooded, with...