Sorted by date Results 1 - 19 of 19
Safety was the watchword of last week’s meeting of the Public School Board, with parents and staff alike weighing in on security at Wrangell’s public schools. The crux of their concern was an incident involving a high school student on February 12, in which the student was recorded by peers during class discussing the setting off of fireworks or explosives at the school, with the intention of getting expelled. Faculty and the school administration had been alerted to the conversation by concerned students afterward. Superintendent Patrick May...
A free showing of a documentary highlighting the hazards of mining on transboundary rivers drew a pretty decent crowd Monday evening, with seats at the Nolan Center filling up fast. Released last year, "Uprivers" is the first film made by Matthew Jackson, of Ketchikan. Jackson previously has spent time in Wrangell working with the Alaska Crossings program, and his presentation of the film is part of a broader tour of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. Prior to showing his 30-minute work,...
March 21, 1918: The people of Petersburg do not share the opinion of the Ketchikan Miner that the people of Wrangell have the wrong notion in strenuously objecting to the importation of Austrian alien enemies to fish in Alaska this coming season. Last week there was a well attended mass, meeting in the Sons of Norway hall at Petersburg at which strong resolutions of protest against the proposed importation of Austrian alien enemy fishermen were passed. In addition to pointing out that it would be unpatriotic to bring them to Alaska where it...
PETERSBURG – Two Petersburg residents are facing controlled substance charges after they allegedly coordinated the shipment of methamphetamine from Mexico to Mitkof Island. Carlos Sandoval, 53, and Helen Olson, 49, appeared before Petersburg Magistrate Judge Desiree Burrell for a felony first hearing on Wednesday afternoon. They were each charged with one count of second degree Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance. According to court filings, police were told Sandoval had traveled to Me...
PETERSBURG – Police seized items from a residence in Petersburg last week that are consistent with the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine, according to a release from the department. Last Thursday and Friday, Petersburg officers served multiple search warrants at a residence on Cornelius Road, and “another location,” according to the release. Officers seized glassware, listed chemicals, materials used to package controlled substances for distribution and other suspicious substances, which will be submitted for official identi...
March 7 Wildlife Troopers from Klawock, Petersburg and Wrangell concluded an investigation which began in December 2017. Investigation determined Jonathan McGraw Jr., 43, from Naukati; Keith Wagner, 52, from Naukati; and Curtis Looper, 27, from Naukati, were commercially harvesting sea cucumbers from closed waters including from the sea cucumber preserve in Whale Pass. McGraw’s boat the F/V Bottom Time, a 19-foot aluminum work skiff, his dive gear, and 1,263 pounds of sea cucumbers were seized on December 19. McGraw was charged with seven c...
Monday, March 19 Agency assist. Agency assist: OCS. Citizen assist: Vehicle unlocked. Civil issue. Domestic. Tuesday, March 20 Agency assist: Bank alarm. Verbal dispute. Verbal dispute. Verbal dispute. Welfare check requested. Agency assist: Alarm. Wednesday, March 21 Hazardous play: Caller reported kids playing by the side of the road. Noise complaint: Officer responded, music turned down. Thursday, March 22 Agency assist: Elementary school. Vandalism: Caller reported someone broke the flowerpots in front of the Elks Lodge. Agency assist:...
Residents and city employees sat in on some crisis response training sessions last week, outlining proactive responses to conflict. James Nelson, now working as an officer with Wrangell's Forest Service office, led the courses at the Nolan Center March 15 and 16. He used to serve on the Wrangell Police Department, a position he had first taken in 2008. With scheduling in the works since last fall, his presentations last week were being done on behalf of the city, primarily for the benefit of...
The Borough Assembly in a special meeting last week adopted a letter outlining its intent to potentially partner up with Southeast Alaska Rural Health Consortium on Wrangell’s hospital. Held on March 22, the early evening meeting covered some of the pros and cons of third party partnership for managing Wrangell Medical Center. The hospital is public asset owned and managed by the borough, one of only a handful in the state still run independently of a larger healthcare service. WMC has been “hemorrhaging money,” assembly members have been...
In a special meeting of the City and Borough Assembly on March 15, members finally moved ahead toward replacing Wrangell’s water treatment plant. The outdated plant has had a number of production problems over the years, starting not long after its construction in 1999. Reliant on a combination of ozonation, roughing and slow-sand filtration before disinfection, high sedimentation from its two water reservoirs has made treatment a time consuming, inefficient process. Poor filter performance has subsequently been impacting water quality and w...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska House on Monday voted to pay out a full Alaska Permanent Fund dividend this year, but residents shouldn't start thinking about how they'll spend the big check just yet. The measure now moves to the Senate, where leaders have been lukewarm to funding a full check. Alaskans haven't had a full dividend check since 2015, when nearly every resident pocketed $2,072. The last two years, the check has been cut in about half as the state has eyed potential use of Alaska Permanent Fund earnings to help cover state c...
PETERSBURG – The library in Petersburg is about a month away from unveiling its 20-foot storyteller totem pole. The Petersburg Public Library is adding a roughly $40,000 red cedar totem pole called the "Storytellers Pole," carved by Tommy Joseph, a Tlingit carver from Sitka. Joseph had an idea about 11 years ago to build a totem pole that caters to children and the storytellers they grow up with. He pitched the idea to the Petersburg library about four years ago, and it stuck, but the library h...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said it has been overestimating how many Chinook and sockeye salmon make it up the Taku River. Department officials said the statistical bias is being corrected by new state-of-the-art studies, the Juneau Empire reported Sunday. The department said it had been overestimating the salmon numbers by 30 to 40 percent. The estimates were conducted using a decades-old “mark-recapture” system. Department coordinator Ed Jones said seal predation and the old system have caused much of the p...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – State labor officials say Alaska lost about 2,300 jobs in February compared to the same month last year. Total employment fell an estimated 0.7 percent in February from February 2017. Employment in oil and gas jobs declined 6.8 percent through the loss of 700 jobs. Retail was down 2.3 percent with the loss of 800 jobs. Construction fell 0.8 percent, representing a loss of 100 jobs, a smaller loss than in recent months. All three sectors of government lost jobs. The manufacturing sector and the transportation, w...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Juneau school officials are considering adopting national science education standards that include teaching middle and high school students about climate change. Alaska's Energy Desk reports the Juneau School District is borrowing some core ideas from the Next Generation Science Standards, which include providing students with an understanding of the relationship between human activity and the Earth. District Director of Teaching and Learning Ted Wilson says how the subject is taught in classrooms is up to the teachers. H...
Pacific halibut catches for 2018 won’t decline as severely as initially feared, but the fishery faces headwinds from several directions. Federal fishery managers announced just a few days before the March 24 start of the halibut opener that commercial catches for Alaska will be down 10 percent for a total of 17.5 million pounds. The industry was on tenterhooks awaiting the catch information, which typically is announced by the International Pacific Halibut Commission in late January. However, representatives from the U.S. and Canada could n...
Wrangell's Head Start program will be opening its doors to families Friday evening as part of a recent educational collaboration between Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Tlingit and Haida Central Council (CCTHITA). The Baby Raven Reads program uses a combination of storytelling, songs and interactive activities to promote literacy and school readiness for Alaska Native families with children ages five years and under. At first started for the Juneau area as a pilot program in 2014, for its...
Revisiting an issue held over from its March 13 meeting, the City and Borough Assembly on Tuesday dug back into redefining job descriptions for a unionized electrical position. Being proposed is a modification to the groundman/meter reading position with Wrangell Municipal Light and Power. On the wage table, the entry-level position is among the lowest grades among staff included in the collective bargaining agreement. Consulting with former electrical superintendent Clay Hammer before his recent departure, city manager Lisa Von Bargen was...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Thursday the extent of its king salmon sport fishing restrictions this season. Citing a poor preseason forecast, the department has decided to close the majority of marine waters within the Petersburg-Wrangell area, not only in District 8 but also in 6, 7 and 10. (See map) In the waters adjacent to the Stikine River, which include District 8 and a portion of the Back Channel in District 7, the retention of king salmon will be prohibited starting...