Sorted by date Results 1 - 22 of 22
Wrangell's Amateur Athletic Union girls basketball team passed through the season unscathed, after tearing up the court in Juneau last week. Team Wrangell was unbeaten through three tournaments this season, taking first in Ketchikan in January, at home last month, and during last week's tournament. The Mike Jackson Memorial Tournament took place from March 23 through 26, a busy event held at Juneau-area schools which saw a total of 130 games played. Wrangell's AAU program took 14 girls, enough...
With legislators currently working out a budget for the 2017 fiscal year, proposed cuts to public radio contributions have a numbers of stations turning up their dials. First hitting the airwaves in 1977, local radio station KSTK serves the Wrangell area. Like similar public stations, its revenue sources at the moment come primarily from three sources, with a third derived from federal Corporation for Public Broadcasting money, a third from the state administered through the Alaska Public Broadcasting Corporation, and the rest a combination of...
Wrangell High School’s cheer squad represented the region with Petersburg last week during the Cheerleading State Championship on March 23. The squad took second place during Region V earlier this month, qualifying for the state-level competition in Anchorage. “It went really well,” said Megan Clark, one of the squad’s two coaches. Along with Anna Hagelman, Clark signed up for the program shortly before the season began last fall. “It’s been interesting,” she said. “We had a lot of trial and error on how to handle things.” A gymnast and cheer...
In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago. March 31, 1916: Dr. E.J. Wheeler, well-known Wrangell dentist, was elected Mayor of Wrangell at Tuesday’s election without opposition. He was given 171 votes. Neil Grant, John Coulter and H.H. Hungerford were elected to the city council for a two year term, Hungerford being re-elected. Grant was high with 156 votes, Coulter second with 134 and Hungerford third with 115. W.G. Wies, the only other candidate, received 96 votes. Mrs. Valbourg Coulter was elected to the school board without o...
Monday, March 21 Citizen Assist – Unlock Vehicle. MVA – Tire fell off, no one was injured. Tuesday, March 22 Suspicious Circumstance. Damaged Vehicle. Citizen Assist – Unlock Vehicle. Warrant Service (JPD) – Arrested Matthew Nakamura, 40, on WPD warrant. Traffic Stop – Verbal warning for driving habits and out of state plates. Wednesday, March 23 Report of Theft. Hazardous Play – warning given. Harassment/Unfounded. Thursday, March 24 William Nakamura, 35, arrested on charges of Criminal Mischief IV/DV, VCOR. Citizen Report of Possible DU...
Monday, March 21 Taylor W. Stavee, 24, appeared before District Court Judge Kevin Miller on the charges of Driving Without a License, Assault in the 4th Degree, Alcohol Restricted and multiple counts of Violating Condition of Release. The defendant pleaded guilty to the charges, and was sentenced to serve 95 days in all with credit for time served. Stavee was ordered to pay $850 with $200 suspended, give a DNA sample for the state registry, and to undergo and complete evaluation and treatment. Stavee lost his driver’s license for 90 days, a...
I have the honor of serving as your representative in the Alaska State Legislature. The major issue facing our legislature this session is Alaska’s fiscal situation. I’m committed to the practice of a government of the people, by the people and for the people. I spend a lot of time communicating with constituents across our district, from Hyder in the south, to Wrangell in the north. I seek to hear from our friends and neighbors about the issues on their minds. Our district does not always come to a consensus, but most of us agree that we nee...
Wrangell will temporarily be without a residential nurse at its Public Health Center for the foreseeable future. Public health nurse Ty Esposito retired from her position last week, departing from Wrangell on March 22. In the interim, nurse manager Sue Bergmann from the Ketchikan PHC will be making visits a couple times each month. “Wrangell will be covered through Ketchikan as of right now,” Bergmann confirmed. Appointments can be scheduled in advance through either the Wrangell or Ketchikan offices, for testing, immunization or family plannin...
Principals Honor Roll: Kaylyn Easterly, Laura Helgeson, Tasha Massin, Trevor Miller, Jing O’Brien, Jade Balansag, Samantha Acuna, Liana Carney, Mercedes Morgan, Sophie O’Brien. Honor Roll: Madison Blackburn, Hannah Brown, Karri Buness, Aaliyah Messmer, Logan Ritchie, Bruce Smith, Jimmy Baggen, Jamie Early, Daniel McIntyre, Elizabeth McIntyre, Tyson Messmer, Kaydin Mill, Rowen Wiederspohn. Honorable Mention: John Buness, Caitlin Cooper, Adriana Larrabee, Skyler Lofftus, Tate Miller, Hank Voltz, Hunter Wiederspohn, Brendan Bergstrom, Jacob Dow...
Visitors to the Wrangell Museum this year will have the chance to see its exhibits in a new light, after some 200 of the old four-foot fluorescent tubes were uninstalled and replaced with LED bulbs. One aspect of the replacement is efficiency, with the new bulbs lasting longer and consuming only a fraction of the power a traditional bulb does. Each bulb is expected to have 50,000 hours of life, or almost six years of continuous use. Aesthetically, the light shines brighter as well with a...
JUNEAU (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review an appeals court decision that reinstated prohibitions on road-building and timber harvests in roadless areas of the Tongass National Forest. Earthjustice attorney Tom Waldo called this great news for the Tongass, the country’s largest national forest. The state had requested the review after a divided federal appeals court in July found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not give a reasoned explanation for reversing course and creating a special exemption to the “Ro...
In an article put out January 7, the Sentinel reported on some of the more notable facets of weather-related trivia for 2015. But according to one resident’s rain gauges, some of the numbers used didn’t quite add up. Bill Messmer has been tracking local rainfall for some years, maintaining monthly and annual records since 1984. He currently uses two types of rain gauge, an electronic one and a tube which needs to be manually emptied. “I collect it at my house every morning,” he said. When off-island, he has someone check the readings for him...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A dour revenue forecast brought with it a warning from Gov. Bill Walker that state legislators need to deliver a plan to address Alaska’s multibillion-dollar deficit this year or face a special session. Legislative leaders say Walker has a role to play, too, in building support for his proposals. House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, said it’s not his job to get support for other people’s bills. But he said he also believes that the state needs to start figuring out new sources of revenue. Here is where things stand w...
For the third week in a row, editions of the Petersburg Pilot and Wrangell Sentinel have been delayed. The replacement part to repair the Pilot’s plate maker arrived on Saturday and was found to be the wrong part. A repair technician apparently ordered the incorrect part from the factory in Denmark. “Last week the part delivery was slowed by the bombing at the Brussels airport in Belgium,” publisher Ron Loesch said. “This week, it’s human error, totally beyond our control.” Plates for both editions were produced at the Ketchikan Daily News...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Bills calling for increased local contributions to two state pension programs and an overhaul of a community assistance program have been proposed in the Alaska Senate as lawmakers look to further cut costs amid a bulging budget deficit. Measures introduced Monday would increase local contributions to the public employees’ and teachers’ retirement systems. They also would phase-out a state-sponsored scholarship program and scale back the community revenue sharing program. The bills, from the Senate Finance Commi...
The local Wells Fargo branch celebrated a century of business in Wrangell last weekend, with a community appreciation day held on Friday. Patrons to the bank and curious bystanders were able to check out displays charting the location's history, including old advertisements and newspaper cutouts, photographs, ledgers and other artifacts. Wrangell's First Bank of Alaska opened its doors in May 1916, across the street from the bank's present location next to Ottesen's. After doing a turn as the...
Alaska’s 2016 salmon harvest will be down by 40 percent from last year’s catch, if the fish show up as predicted. The preliminary numbers released by the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game call for a total catch of 161 million salmon this year; the 2015 harvest topped 268 million fish. The shortfall stems from a projected big decrease for pink salmon. A humpie harvest forecast of 90 million would be a drop of 100 million fish from last summer. Here’s the statewide catch breakdown for the other salmon species: for sockeye, the forecast calls for a...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A Rhode Island-size ice field in the mountains behind Alaska’s capital could disappear by 2200 if climate-warming trends continue, according to a University of Alaska Fairbanks study. The study published this week by the Journal of Glaciology predicts 60 percent of the ice in the Juneau Ice Field could be gone by 2099. The Juneau Ice Field is the source for a major Alaska tourist attraction, the Mendenhall Glacier, visited last year by 450,000 people at a U.S. Forest Service center. By 2099, the study authors said, the...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – People interested in getting the green light to start marijuana businesses in Alaska are more focused on cultivation than retail. About two-thirds of the applications submitted to the Marijuana Control Board are for cultivation, according to The Alaska Journal of Commerce. Of 175 licenses, 40 are for limited cultivation with production limits of 500 square feet at most, 77 for standard cultivation with no limits, 43 are for retail licenses and six are for product manufacturing, which includes creating edibles. Only t...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Alaska Democratic party’s presidential caucuses by a wide margin Saturday over former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Large crowds and long lines were reported at some caucus sites, including in Juneau, where the caucus got started about 45 minutes behind schedule as people continued to show up. Some participants were decked out in political regalia pins and T-shirts proclaiming their candidate of choice and campaign signs bobbed above heads in the crowd. Kirsa Hughes-Skandijs sai...
