Articles from the March 20, 2014 edition


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  • School board announces superintendent finalists

    Brian O Connor|Mar 20, 2014

    The Wrangell school board selected two finalist candidates for the position of superintendent in executive session Monday. According to a press release issued Tuesday morning, the finalists are: Patrick Mayer, principal since 2010 of Delta High School and the short-lived Delta Cyber School for the Delta Greely School District in Delta Junction, near Fairbanks; and Jay Thomas, Assistant Superintendent and Curriculum Director in the Bering Strait School District in Unalakleet on the shores of the Bering Sea. The school system reviewed 14...

  • Cheerleaders make it to State for second straight year

    Brian O Connor|Mar 20, 2014

    Two might just be the magic number for the Wrangell High School Cheer squad. The cheerleaders will head to the State competition in Anchorage this week for the second year in a row after having come in second place, also for the second time. After holding a community bake sale over the weekend to raise funds for traveling, the team left on an Anchorage-bound jet Monday with a performance slated for Tuesday evening. While basketball teams get 32 minutes of regulation (plus overtime) to craft a...

  • The Way We Were

    Mar 20, 2014

    March 26, 1914: John Faming came in from Etolin Island last Thursday night. Mr. Faming has spent the last year prospecting on that island and this is the first time he has been in town since last fall. He has some samples with him of a ledge of free milling gold that he predicts will run $200 per ton. If this is true, he has made a great find, but as the weather has been unfavorable, he was unable to prospect it very fully. March 24, 1939: Relief funds totaling $9,452.00 have been allocated to Wrangell, according to word received Saturday by...

  • Main breaks close street, don't disrupt service

    Brian O Connor|Mar 20, 2014

    Water main breaks at two locations this week kept borough crews busy. The first break caused the closure of St. Michael's Street twice during the week, most recently on Monday afternoon. Another break hit the main supplying water to Wrangell Medical Center and Evergreen Elementary School in front of Senior Housing, said Public Works Director Carl Johnson. In both cases, materials used to construct the mains were responsible, Johnson said. The mains use ductile iron, or iron pipes with a cement...

  • Police reports

    Mar 20, 2014

    Monday, March 10 Nothing to Report. Tuesday, March 11 Report of phone harassment. Officer responded to a concerned citizen. Parking Complaint – Vehicle was moved. Wednesday, March 12 Unlock Vehicle. Report of Criminal Mischief. Thursday, March 13 Catering Permit. Unlock Vehicle. Disorderly conduct – Verbal warning was given. Possible Domestic. Traffic Stop – Verbal warning for driving habits. Friday, March 14 Parking Complaint. Concerned citizen. Traffic stop – Verbal warning for faulty equipment. Saturday, March 15 Nothing to Report. Sunday,...

  • Obituary: Bill Andrew Dodson, 66

    Mar 20, 2014

    Bill Andrew Dodson passed away unexpectedly Jan. 8, 2014. He made his home in Edna Bay, Alaska for the past twenty years. He moved to Alaska in 1980, first living two years in Point Baker, then ten years in Wrangell before relocating to Edna Bay in 1994. Bill was born July 3, 1947 to Vernon and Irene Dodson in Walla Walla, Wash. He was raised in Anacortes, Wash. and graduated from Anacortes High School in 1965. He received an Associate of Arts Degree from Skagit Valley College in 1968, plus a...

  • Peggy's Corner of the House

    Peggy Wilson|Mar 20, 2014

    Hello everyone! Welcome to week eight of our Legislative Session. We have entered the downside of the session so, as in past years, the pace has quickened and night meetings will continue to happen more and more in order for us to get all of the work done in the allotted 90 days. I am excited to report that this past week my House Joint Resolution 10 (HJR10) passed from the House over to the Senate. For the past five years I have been advocating for an Alaska Transportation Infrastructure Fund (ATIF). In Fiscal Year 2014, 79 percent of...

  • Through the bows

    Mar 20, 2014

  • School News

    Mar 20, 2014

    Courtney McCay of Wrangell earned a spot on the Western Oregon University Dean’s Honor Roll for the Fall 2013 semester. She is studying American Sign Language/English Interpreting. Courtney is the daughter of Tammy and Clay McCay of Wrangell....

  • Wrangell students shine in act of kindness

    Brian O Connor|Mar 20, 2014

    It’s an ethical dilemma as old as the hills. You find a wallet stuffed with money lying unattended on the ground. What do you do? Members of the Wolves varsity basketball team and the pep band found themselves in just such a situation during the Region V basketball tournament, March 5. Some members of each student group were at a Fred Meyer’s store during the tournament loading into a van to return to Juneau Douglas High School, when freshman Sig Decker noticed something lying in a snow bank. “I almost let it go because we were all pilin...

  • One People Canoe Society holds paddle workshop

    Brian O Connor|Mar 20, 2014

    The air was thick with sawdust and the sound of electric motors this weekend at Wrangell High School. Visiting representatives from the One People Canoe Society were in town to hold a paddle-making workshop in preparation for the biannual Celebration, a festival of Tlingit culture in Juneau. While decorative paddles are sometimes a feature of Alaskan Native culture, the workshop this weekend was a little more practically oriented, said Brian Chilton, an artist by trade who oversaw the workshop...

  • School board votes to keep Jenson, hire secondary principal

    Brian O Connor|Mar 20, 2014

    The Wrangell School board voted 4-0 Monday to fill two critical positions. The board offered Deidre Jenson, interim principal of Evergreen Elementary School from early in the second semester, the same job full time. Jenson, formerly of Thorne Bay, previously said she would accept the position if it were offered. She said Monday she was happy to have been offered the position. The board also voted to offer the position of secondary principal – the joint position for Wrangell middle and high schools – to Colter Barnes, currently a principal in...

  • Legislature considers nixing cost of living for ferry vessel employees

    Brian O Connor|Mar 20, 2014

    A bill being considered in the State Senate could impact local ferry workers. Senate Bill 182 amends Alaska State law pertaining to bargaining rights to eliminate what is known as a cost-of-living differential. This provision of contracts allows for salaries to be automatically adjusted to match the cost of living of a certain area. For individual employees, this can amount to as much as $4 per hour, or roughly $8,320 per year for, in particular, Alaska Marine Highway System employees, who are currently bargaining with the state for a new...

  • Fish Factor

    Laine Welch|Mar 20, 2014

    Co-products is the big new buzz word in the seafood industry as more companies move towards ‘head to tails’ usages for fish. “For instance, the oils we are producing now from pollock livers has become so valuable in capsules and other human nutraceutical products, it makes no sense to call the livers a “byproduct” of the fillets or surimi. All of it is important in the puzzle of how to maximize the value of each fish caught,” said Alex Oliveira, a food specialist at the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center, a satellite campus of the UAF...

  • Tanner Crab fishery sees increased harvest, price

    Kyle Clayton|Mar 20, 2014

    PETERSBURG – This year’s Tanner Crab season saw the highest harvest since the 2000/2001 season. Alaska Department of Fish and Game Lead Crab Biologist Joe Stratman said Tanner Crab prices and the overall harvest value were also up from last year. This season’s total harvest value was $3.1 million, with an average of $2.53 per pound compared to last year’s $2.8 million harvest value and $2.28 per pound. Preliminary estimates show this season’s Tanner fishery in Registration Area A is 1.25 million pounds with 80 permit holders. “This harvest jus...

  • St. Pat's Run

    Mar 20, 2014

  • House Finance hears governor's education bill

    Mar 20, 2014

    JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ The House Finance Committee took up Gov. Sean Parnell’s omnibus education bill Monday and one of the major components of House Bill 278 is the per-pupil allocation level, which was not taken up by the Education Committee. Chairman Bill Stoltze of Chugiak said public testimony will be taken during Tuesday’s evening session. “We are going to be taking a long look at this bill for most of the week,’’ Stoltze said. “And Tuesday evening we will begin hearing public testimony on it and we will stay here until we have heard...

  • Planning and Zoning approves preliminary replot for tidelands

    Brian O Connor|Mar 20, 2014

    The borough planning and zoning commission held a public hearing for a preliminary plat review March 13. The proposed re-plat would combine Dave Svendsen’s previously existing portions of tidelands – currently designated Lot 1 and Lot 2 — near Wrangell’s Inner Harbor into a single 20,366 square-foot lot designated as Lot 1A. In addition to combining the two lots, the replot will add a 1,955 square-foot triangle shaped piece of previously unsubdivided tidelands. Svendsen has been in the process of obtaining the re-plat since at least January...

  • Chamber honors Robinson, Stikine Inn, Privett, teachers

    Brian O Connor|Mar 20, 2014

    The Chamber of Commerce honored Lucy Robinson with the Citizen of the Year award at Saturday's annual dinner. The event also honored new chamber members, the Business of the Year, retiring school system personnel, and distributed the Chamber Membership Appreciation Award. It drew more than 200 members and guests to the Nolan Center for dinner, drinks, dessert auctions, and games. The dinner is the sole event dedicated exclusively to Chamber fundraising, Director Cyni Waddington told the crowd....