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City Hall jumped a notch on its alert level Tuesday, declaring a Stage III water shortage watch. The third stage is the most severe in Wrangell’s water shortage management plan, adopted last year by the Borough Assembly. The city was previously on a Stage I alert due to dwindling supplies of raw water in the treatment plant’s two reservoirs. In its notice to the public, Public Works explained that Wrangell has received no considerable rainfall over the course of the past month. Precipitation has mainly been in the form of snow, which, to dat...
Alaska Crossings is gearing up for its 2018 season, with guide training formally starting last week. The youth-oriented behavioral health program has operated out of Wrangell since its inception, back in 2001. Originally a program of Alaska Island Community Services, Crossings is now under the Southeast Alaska Rural Health Consortium umbrella since it acquired AICS last year. Designed to help people between the ages of 12 and 18 years, Crossings combines therapeutic interventions with outdoor...
Three big issues weighed heavily upon the Wrangell Assembly’s agenda Tuesday; impending crises with the city’s water supply, its hospital’s financial stability, and the state’s site selection for a monofill to house treated lead-contaminated soil extracted from the former Byford junkyard. • Water crisis The city entered its highest watch level for water conservation Tuesday, after learning that its two reservoirs only have about 30 or so days’ worth of raw reserves. (see adjoining story) Reservoir levels have reached a low point after an un...
March 21, 1918: Capt. H. B. Babbington, I. Less and E. Brennan of Vancouver Dredge and Salvage Company, arrived on the Princess Royal, Tuesday bringing with them a diving outfit. The gentlemen left today with Charles Darwell on the Marguerite for the scene of the Mariposa wreck where they will make a divers survey to determine the feasibility of raising the vessel. Capt. Babbington stated to the Sentinel reporter that whether the Mariposa will be raised will depend entirely upon the condition she is in. He stated that from all reports he had...
The Federal Communications Commission last week approved the transfer of licenses from Wrangell Radio Group to CoastAlaska. A nonprofit radio and television service based in Juneau, CoastAlaska provides administrative and technical support for public broadcast stations in Wrangell, Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg and Ketchikan. Citing financial difficulties, last December Wrangell Radio Group – the entity which manages local radio station KSTK – filed a petition with the FCC to allow a transfer of its...
PETERSBURG – Two Petersburg teens last week pleaded not guilty to charges of harassment in connection to chasing and hitting multiple deer with a pickup truck in early February. Jasmine Ohmer, 17, and Sebastian Davis, 17, appeared before Judge William Carey in the Petersburg District Court for an arraignment hearing last week. Ohmer pleaded not guilty to harassing game. Davis pleaded not guilty to harassing game, as well as reckless driving. According to court documents, on Feb. 5, Davis allegedly used a pickup truck to chase and hit two deer a...
Monday, March 5 Paper service. Report of assault. Tuesday, March 6 Hit deer. Driving complaint. Citizen assist. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for faulty equipment. Wednesday, March 7 Noise complaint: Verbal warning given. Trespass: Person had already left upon officer arrival. Report of trespass. Thursday, March 8 Parking complaint. Traffic stop: Verbal warning given for driving habits. Civil standby: Paper service. Found property: Backpack. MVA: Deer. Friday, March 9 Nothing to report. Saturday, March 10 Agency assist: Fire. Citizen assist....
An incipient Wrangell business has won the 2017 Path to Prosperity business competition, which includes a $25,000 grant award for starting up. Calling her business Mighty Bear Roots, resident Dixie Booker has proposed developing an aeroponic garden to cultivate and sell fresh produce. In this method plants would be grown in specialized tray towers, rooted in a soilless medium and sustained through a blend of mineral nutrients and water, and controlled lighting. Booker said the idea for the business came to her out of a need for fresher...
Ruby Ethel Taylor, 89, died on Feb. 17, 2018 in Wrangell, Alaska. She was born on Sept. 9, 1929 to Earl and Ethel Hannaford in San Francisco, California, the month before the Great Depression. Her father was a postal worker, and her mother a nurse. She grew up with a love of music, especially the fiddle tunes played at the old time dances that her parents and grandparents went to every weekend. After graduating from Palo Alto High, she married Frank Romerez and had her first child Francie,... Full story
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska is among a handful of states in the West that doesn’t mandate smoke-free workplaces statewide, and one powerful lawmaker is standing in the way of that changing. State Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux chairs the House Rules Committee and decides which bills make it to the floor. She has balked at moving the bill, which overwhelmingly passed the Senate last year and enjoys widespread support in the House – half the body’s 40 members have signed as co-sponsors. But LeDoux told a news conference last month that the state should...
The Forest Service held a public input session with Wrangell residents last week, as it puts together ideas for a 10- to 15-year project to benefit the Wrangell and Petersburg districts of the Tongass National Forest. The Central Tongass Landscape Level Analysis would plan for a major project on a large scale that would increase the number of activities authorized in a single analysis and decision. It reflects a larger effort nationwide to improve the USFS environmental analysis process, and...
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) – Twenty percent of high school students in Kodiak reported bringing a weapon to school within the last 30 days, according to an Alaska Department of Health study. The students’ responses raised concerns during a school board meeting on Monday, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported . The Kodiak percentage was nearly double the statewide average of 10.2 percent. School board chairman Robert Foy said the survey also raised concerns of marijuana use, hard drug use and a lack of parental involvement. “Some of these things are kind...
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – Alaska’s population declined for the first time since the late 1980s, according to recent figures from Alaska’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The department published the statistics for 2017 in the March edition of Alaska Economic Trends. Figures show the state’s population decreased by 8,900 last year, the fifth year in a row of net migration losses, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. “This represents the longest streak of Alaska losing more migrants than it gains since World War II, when year...
More big bundles of old fishing nets will soon be on their way from Dutch Harbor to Denmark to be remade into high end plastics. It will be the second batch of nets to leave Dutch for a higher cause and more Alaska fishing towns can get on board. Last summer a community collaborative put nearly 240,000 pounds, or about 40 nets, into shipping vans that were bound for a Danish ‘clean tech’ company called Plastix. The company refines and pelletizes all types of plastics and resells them to makers of water bottles, cell phone cases and other items....
