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If it proves financially feasible, Wrangell Medical Center may soon pass from municipal ownership to new management. At a public meeting held inside the Nolan Center on Monday evening, representatives of the City and Borough of Wrangell and the hospital explained WMC is in pretty dire straits at the moment. WMC chief executive Robert Rang said the facility has been having increasing difficulty meeting costs to operate. "The hospital's been losing money for several years," he reported....
Sen. Dan Sullivan stopped into Wrangell for a lightning tour Friday, arriving on the morning jet and taking off that afternoon for Ketchikan. His visit to Wrangell was the first since being sworn in, making the community one of his campaign stops in October 2014 while running on the Republican ticket. On a brief break in the session, he had earlier in the week attended training for the Marine Corps Reserves before heading back to Southeast. "I really just wanted to get back to the community and...
April 18, 1943 The concentration of Alaska’s salmon canning industry is running smoothly and there is every indication that in the season, which begins next month, the industry will be able to increase its pack over last year. The coordination order, announced early in March, will concentrate canning in 74 of the most modern plants rather than in the 120 previously used. This concentration will save manpower, equipment, and transportation to a large extent. The armed services and the War Shipping Administration have co-operated as far as they c...
PETERSBURG – A Petersburg man is facing controlled substance charges after police intercepted a package shipped to him that contained about an ounce of heroin. Kelsey McCay, 25, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, according to the Petersburg Police Department. McCay was the subject of an investigation after police developed information that heroin was being shipped to him. A search warrant of the package was granted and police d...
March 14 Heather Miethe, 47, from Wrangell was determined to be operating more than the allowed 10 shrimp pots, following investigation by Alaska Wildlife Troopers, Wrangell and Petersburg posts. Miethe has been issued a summons in the Wrangell District Court for over-limit personal shrimp gear. March 15 Roxann Braley, 24, from Angoon, was cited by Wrangell Troopers for failing to report on her 2016 registration moose permit (RM038) within the time frame as specified by the permit. Braley was issued a $110 citation for Failure to Return Hunt...
March 19 Lief C. Bosdell, 19, appeared before First District Court Judge Kevin Miller to face two counts, a class C felony count of Vehicular Theft 1 and a class A misdemeanor charge of Assault 4 – Cause Fear of Injury. He pleaded guilty to these, and 11 further counts – including six Vehicle Theft 1 and three Tamper with Property charges – were dismissed under Rule 11 agreement. Bosdell was sentenced to serve 720 days with 469 days suspended, with 90 unsuspended days to be served concurrently with 101 days from the felony count; the defen...
Monday, April 2 Agency assist. Citizen assist: Civil standby. Civil issue. MVA: Vehicle vs. deer around 3-mile: Deer ran off into the woods. Tuesday, April 3 Charged with criminal mischief I : Assault IV : Daniel Eklund,31. Traffic stop: Driving habits. DVO. Summons service. Civil matter. Wednesday, April 4 Officer responded to a concerned citizen report on Reid Street. Received a report of a disturbance at ASHA: Officer responded: Matter resolved. Received a report of gunshots on Airport Loop, an officer responded. Thursday, April 5 Subpoena...
Shannon Diane Gillen (Booga) passed away April 1, in Anchorage Alaska. She was born November 17, 1977 in Wrangell, Alaska to Timothy Gillen Sr. (Wrangell) and Jinx Clark (Reedsport, Oregon). Shannon stayed in Wrangell after graduating from Wrangell High School in 1995 to work jobs from Wrangell Seafoods to her latest job at SEARHC. She loved camping, going up the Stikine River, bowling, laughing and giving you her honest opinion even if you didn't want it. She was always an Auntie first and her...
The state Department of Fish and Game has announced its 2018 preseason estimates for Chinook salmon, and its all-gear harvest limit for Southeast Alaska under provisions of the Pacific Salmon Treaty. In its release last week, the department set the year’s limit at 130,000 “treaty fish,” nearly 80,000 fish lower than the preseason limit available in 2017. This also includes a 10-percent reduction in response to conservation needs for the king salmon stocks in Southeast, northern British Columbia, and their transboundary rivers. The annual all-g...
Jeremiah 31:21a “Set up for yourself road marks, Place for yourself guideposts; …” Guideposts are really necessary to see where you are going and where you have been. I wanted to see Rainbow Falls when it was frozen. A couple of months ago, a friend told me, now is the time. I put on my Yak Traks. The snow on the stairs was 8 inches deep. There was a frozen 1 foot wide path in the middle of the steps. As I was climbing, I could see where some folks had strayed off the path. Others had given up and turned around. I found comfort knowing I was f...
The presses were on hold early Wednesday morning as Wrangell Public School District announced its decision regarding the next superintendent. The WPSD Board has selected candidate Debbe Lancaster for the position, who will begin July 1. The board arrived at its decision after a series of interviews and consultation with a selection committee. That committee, representing district staff, a parent and student, also had the opportunity to meet and interview the candidates. Lancaster has reportedly accepted the district’s offer, agreeing to a t...
Three finalists for the Wrangell Public School District superintendent position made a joint visit to the island earlier this week. Patricia Hutcherson, Debbe Lancaster and Bill Schildbach were the top three of eight candidates submitted for consideration by the Association of Alaska School Boards. AASB had been contracted by the Wrangell School Board to help hire a replacement to current superintendent, Patrick Mayer, who will conclude his time in the position at the end of the school year....
A pair of Anchorage-area students were able to take the trip of a lifetime last month, heading to Ecuador with their class on a service learning trip. Mother Kara Carey said her children, daughter Taylor and son Quinn, had been planning the trip for over a year, and had been able to go through a combination of fundraising, work and savings. A significant component of those funds had come from the community of Wrangell, primarily through a pair of fundraisers the Carey family had held during July...
The snow around Wrangell has at last abated, temperatures are above freezing once again and spring is in the air. Left behind in the sweep of this seasonal change, a winter’s worth of litter, rubbish and debris have reappeared along city streets and facilities, which several initiatives planned for this month hope to address. First up, this Saturday Wrangell’s annual community cleanup is being organized at Evergreen Elementary School. The site will be a staging area and meeting point for volunteers through the morning. Starting at 8:30 a.m...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The leaders of Alaska’s largest travel industry trade group are looking for ways to fill a void in their marketing budget created by cuts from lawmakers. The tourism industry has been a bright spot in an otherwise struggling Alaska economy of late, growing consistently along with the national economy since the 2008 financial crisis, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. But Alaska Travel Industry Association President Sarah Leonard said that despite a record number of roughly 1.86 million visitors last summer, the...
Spring is usually the busiest time of year for brokers in the buy/sell/trade business for Alaska salmon permits. But that’s not the case this year. Values for several salmon permits had ticked upwards after a blockbuster salmon fishery in 2017, but they have remained stagnant since last fall. “That sort of summarizes the salmon permit market. There is not a lot of excitement about any of them,” said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer. A lackluster catch forecast for the upcoming salmon season - down 34 percent – has helped dampen...
The Wrangell Chamber of Commerce announced last Friday it had finalized details for a coho salmon derby for the late summer, taking the place of its annual king salmon tournament it recently canceled. Set to be the 66th annual derby this year, due to emergency measures taken by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closing king salmon to sport fishing in virtually all Southeast waters, the Chamber's derby committee thought it appropriate to cancel the event. In its stead, members resurrected a...
Not on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, safety procedures among city workers developed into a topic for discussion for the City and Borough Assembly. After delivering her regular borough manager’s report, Lisa Von Bargen took a moment to absorb additional input from members and answer any questions. Member Stephen Prysunka revisited a longstanding complaint about laxness among public employees regarding the use of seat belts and other protection while on the job. Examples extend to not wearing protective headgear at the boatyard, and rec...
ANCHORAGE (AP) – The state will attempt to recoup the costs of repairing a bridge over a major highway outside Anchorage that was struck by an over-height truck last month. The Alaska Department of Transportation hopes to recover the costs from insurance providers through negotiations to eventually reach a settlement, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported Friday. A truck hauling a modular unit on Glenn Highway scraped off a girder of the Artillery Road overpass, causing about $1.8 million in damages, said Shannon McCarthy, a department s...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Legislature is in its final week of a scheduled 90-day session, with budgets to complete and questions over what it will take for lawmakers to consider their job finished for the year. Senate President Pete Kelly said lawmakers possibly could finish “in proximity” to the 90-day mark, which is Sunday, but declined to speculate further. Voters approved a 90-day session limit but the state constitution permits sessions of up to 121 days. He told reporters Monday that the House and Senate aren’t in the “full-o...
