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Presidential approval of a disaster declaration for the Wrangell Cooperative Association will make more than half-a-million dollars available for the tribe to remove hazardous material from the beach covered in debris by the 11-Mile landslide on Nov. 20. WCA is the first tribe in Alaska to receive a federal disaster declaration, and the fourth in the nation to provide individual assistance under the program, said Esther Aaltséen Reese, WCA tribal administrator. President Joe Biden signed the declaration on March 15. The funding will cover the...
Mason Villarma, the interim borough manager since November, is no longer interim: The assembly has agreed to offer him the job. In an executive session March 19, the assembly interviewed three applicants - two from out of state - and ultimately decided to proceed with contract negotiations with Villarma. Mayor Patty Gilbert and Vice Mayor David Powell will negotiate a contract, which will likely come before the assembly for approval at the April 9 meeting. Villarma went to work as finance...
The Alaska Marine Highway System’s ongoing crew shortage has eased up for entry-level steward positions but remains a significant problem in the wheelhouse and for engineers, likely keeping the Kennicott out of service again this summer. As of March 8, the state ferry system was short almost 50 crew of what it would need to put its full operational fleet to sea this summer, which means keeping the Kennicott tied to the dock, Craig Tornga, the system’s marine director, reported to a state Senate budget subcommittee on March 19. That is abo...
The 6-month-old Wrangell Athletic Club has raised more than $10,000 toward its mission of paying for student travel to state competition, with plans to raise a lot more. Meanwhile, the school district has advanced more than $40,000 for student travel to state competition in the 2023-2024 school year. The school board last year appropriated $46,000 to cover a deficit in the travel account for the 2022-2023 school year, with the cautionary advice that it did not plan to repeat the spending this year — and would look to the new fundraising g...
March 27, 1924 Nicholas Fliness, who has the contract for building the Wrangell breakwater for the government, arrived here on the Northwestern Monday night. Mr. Fliness brought 14 men with him who will comprise his crew at the start. A camp is being established near the head of the bay. The cottage which the city recently bought from James Shaffner has been rented by Mr. Fliness and will be used as a mess hall. The Viginia IV arrived from Seattle Thursday afternoon bringing powder and other material and equipment which will be used on the...
PAJAMA STORY TIME 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, at the Irene Ingle Public Library. Children invited to come read bedtime stories in their PJ’s. BRAVE is hosting the I Toowú Klatseen (Strengthen Your Spirit) program from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays through May 9, at the community center. The empowering, confidence-building program for grades 3-5 incorporates Southeast Alaska values, running and a sense of community to help kids learn what it means to strengthen their spirit. Free, for kids of all cultures, physical ab...
After last year’s comprehensive review of every piece of property in Wrangell pushed up the borough’s total taxable assessed valuation by more than 50%, this year’s assessment notices are tame. Property tax assessments were sent out March 20, and initial numbers are down slightly from last year, though the numbers are not final until approved by the borough assembly. This year the total assessed value of taxable property comes to $229 million, with non-taxable property at $158 million, which includes state, federal, borough, SEARHC and churc...
The state ferry system carried 181,000 passengers in 2023, still short of the pre-COVID numbers in 2019 and down substantially from almost 340,000 in 2012 and more than 420,000 in 1992. Overall vehicle traffic also is down, from more than 115,000 in 2012 to 63,000 last year. Much of the decline corresponds to a reduction in the number of vessels in operation, according to statistics presented to a state Senate budget subcommittee on March 19. The fleet provided almost 400 “operating weeks” in 2012, with each week a ship is at sea counting as an...
Problems with dog waste in town, in parks and ballfields are ongoing. While there has been some improvement in recent years, people not picking up after their dogs continues to be a recurring issue, especially with the coming of spring. “With everything thawing, it’s one of the more gross times of the year,” said recreation director Devyn Johnson of Parks and Recreation. “And it’s a bit of a roller coaster. Sometimes people do better than other times.” Parks and Recreation Director Lucy Robinson and her staff have been working hard to clear pa...
Wrangell has a lot to offer people who live here and those who visit. Certainly the river, Native history and culture, Petroglyph Beach, the museum and fishing are on the list. So, too, is an attractive downtown. It’s spring, which means it’s time for volunteers to pitch in with a rake, a shovel, pruning shears or weeding gloves to keep downtown looking good through the summer months — when everything looks better and greener than the recently departed winter. The Parks and Recreation Department is running an adopt-a-garden program again this y...
Just as the snow and ice have melted away from the bushes and shrubs in downtown garden beds, so too have they disappeared from the parks, trails and ballfields in town — exposing the winter deposits left by dogs. Or, more accurately, left by dog owners who don’t think enough of the mess that their pets leave behind for others to step in. Devyn Johnson of Parks and Recreation describes it as “one of the more gross times of the year.” That pretty much sums up how everyone else sees it. Department staff try to dig in and keep the recreat...
Tax credits have long been popular, growing more so every year. Supporters push them to provide government backing for new initiatives or ongoing programs, steering money to worthy causes — some unworthy ones, too — bypassing actual appropriations by federal, state or municipal lawmakers. With a tax credit, businesses or individuals can make donations to a program or invest in a project, such as housing, and reduce their taxes to the federal, state or municipal treasury. Tax credits divert private money that otherwise would become public mon...
The community of Wrangell never stops showing up for each other. It is the quality that I most appreciate about living here. It keeps me humble and hopeful for the future, because I see examples of people caring for each other every day in Wrangell. Sometimes in little ways. Sometimes in big ways. On Saturday, March 16, I got off a plane from Washington, D.C., and attended the public memorial service for Ottie Florschutz. People brought food, memories, photos, laughter and tears to share with family and friends, as the community grieved...
The district’s electric school bus, originally scheduled to arrive in late spring through the federal Clean School Bus program, has been delayed until March 2025 due to a backlog of orders at the bus manufacturer, which could be too late for the terms of the grant’s fall deadline. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr explained the reasons for the delay at a school board meeting on March 18. The delay could pose a problem, as the grant deadline requires the bus to be on the job by October. Burr doesn’t know yet whether the grant can be salvaged. “We...
Archie Young likes to joke that August is like Christmas for the coaches at Mt. Edgecumbe, full of surprises for the season ahead. The state-run public boarding school in Sitka has new students coming in and departing each year, and it isn't until classes start and the dust settles that the coaches know who might be representing the school on various athletic fields and courts. In 25 years as a teacher and coach, Young has thrived as a stabilizing force in those unpredictable circumstances. But...
Almost half of the students enrolled at the school district are counted as Alaska Native. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr confirmed that out of a total of 270 students enrolled in the district, 122 are registered as Alaska Native, while 13 are American Indian. “We’re 50% or really close,” he said. “Some of those might be mixed, depending on which parent filled it out.” Burr added that while Kim Powell, the district’s administrative assistant, had told him that the ratio has always been around that percentage, statistics from the state and f...
Wrangell’s BRAVE has started its running and empowerment program, I Toowú Klatseen (ITK), for kids in third through fifth grades. The program provides free running and exercise activities, lessons in self-respect, community building and healthy decision-making. I Toowú Klatseen means “strengthen your spirit” in Tlingit, or being strong on the inside and the outside — philosophies the program seeks to share with Wrangell’s youth. The program started Tuesday, March 26, and will run to May 9 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 5:30 t...
This is the second year that Wrangell’s Parks and Recreation Department will host an adopt-a-garden volunteer program to help beautify downtown. Though volunteers have maintained the garden beds in years past, last year was the first year that Parks and Rec organized the volunteer program and provided resources. The seasonal garden beds will be opened for work on April 6, when Parks and Rec will host a work party. That will include a meeting to discuss guidelines, available resources and a garden bed care schedule. Opening the garden beds e...
Five Wrangell teens know their books, chapters and verses better than any other team in Alaska, and for the second year in a row Wrangell won the state title at The Salvation Army’s Bible Bowl competition. The team was so dominant and won by such a wide margin at the competition March 16 in Juneau that “Anchorage actually forfeited,” said Capt. Chase Green of The Salvation Army’s Wrangell church. Haines took second and Juneau won third in the four-team contest, he said. With the state title in hand, Wrangell will move on to the nationa...
Under legislation passed March 21 by the Alaska House of Representatives, police searching for a lost hiker could obtain cell phone and satellite phone location data without a warrant. The House approved House Bill 316 by a 38-1 margin after moving it forward with unusual speed. The Senate has referred the bill to committee for discussion. The Legislature faces a mid-May adjournment deadline. The measure is modeled after similar laws in other states and is known as the “Kelsey Smith Act.” Smith was an 18-year-old who was abducted and mur...
Teacher salaries in Alaska are not competitive when compared to much of the Lower 48, according to new research from the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. Alaska teachers are paid below the national average once their salaries are adjusted for the high cost of living in Alaska, said Matthew Berman, a professor of Economics at UAA and one of two authors of the study published last month. The topic of public school funding and teacher pay has been a main focus in the Alaska Legislature this session and o...
A new legal opinion by the top attorney at the U.S. Department of the Interior has extended the land jurisdiction of Alaska tribes, upending decades of precedent and offering new opportunities for the state’s 228 federally recognized tribal governments. The opinion, issued Feb. 1 by Interior Department Solicitor Robert Anderson, says tribal authority applies on land allotments given to individual Alaska Natives, unless those parcels of land are owned by a non-tribal member or are “geographically removed from the tribal community.” “That...
HELP WANTED Johnson’s Building Supply is accepting applications for the following positions: -- Lead Warehouseman: Duties include checking in freight, stocking inventory, scheduling and making deliveries to customers, helping customers pull materials, and counter sales. Full-time position, will require working Saturdays. Valid Alaska driver’s license, must be able to lift 50 lbs., forklift experience a plus, starting pay is DOE. Position starts immediately. -- Customer Service: Duties include counter sales, freight handling, customer del...