Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 27
Wrangell’s annual community cleanup is planned for April 29, with free lunch, free trash bags, free disposable gloves, and cash prizes for volunteer picker-uppers. And while organizers hope the incentives will get people to turn out, the real prize is a cleaner community. “Trash is expensive,” said one of the organizers, Kim Wickman, of WCA. It’s expensive to buy the goods, which are shipped into Wrangell, it’s costly to send the trash out to a landfill in Washington state, and it’s unsightly when the garbage litters the town. She hopes peopl...
With four weeks left before the May 17 adjournment deadline, legislators are focusing on the state budget and how to resolve big differences between the House and Senate over school funding and the amount of this year’s Permanent Fund dividend. The House approved its version of the budget on Monday, sending it to the Senate for certain changes. And while the major disputes are over how much to spend on education and dividends, and how to pay for the spending this year, many lawmakers also are kicking around ideas to generate new revenues in t...
Every spring when the eulachon spawn, the Stikine River flats are flooded with thousands of migratory shorebirds. And each year, the town responds in-kind with the Stikine River Birding Festival, filling the radio airwaves with bird songs and holding an array of avian-themed events. This season, the festival will run for three weekends between April 21 and May 6. It will feature movies, crafts, workshops and more. “Birding is such a nice welcome to spring,” said Corree Delabrue of the U.S. Forest Service, who helped plan the festival. She lov...
For nearly 40 years, the Sourdough Lodge has served the needs of Wrangell whether through tourist visits, assisted living or pandemic housing. During that time, it was owned by the Harding family, who built the lodge in 1984. Now, Zach Taylor and his father John Taylor have purchased the property from Bruce and Darlene Harding and will continue to operate the business as a bed and breakfast. "We're going to call it the Sourdough Lodge," Zach Taylor said. "Bruce and Dar had it as the Old...
April 19, 1923 The home of John Bradley, which was badly damaged by fire recently, is being repaired this week through funds raised by a subscription list circulated last week by Mayor Grant. The Sisters and Brothers Society also made a donation of $50. Mr. Bradley is one of the older and well-known Natives of Wrangell and has always been highly respected. Last summer he lost his savings in a small hand cannery in which he was a partner, and this, added to the long illness of his wife, made it impossible for him to repair the damage done to...
As the Alder Top Village development moves through its design process, borough officials, the planning and zoning commission and members of the public will have the opportunity to shape what these new neighborhoods will look like. At its April 11 meeting, the borough assembly unanimously approved the first reading of a rezoning for the subdivision, which will be built on the site of the former Wrangell Institute, a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school. The assembly will hold a public hearing April 25 and could vote to amend or approve the...
The Planning and Zoning Commission has approved the next step in making a physical location for the St. Frances Animal Rescue facility a reality. Last Thursday, the commission voted to grant a conditional-use permit for the nonprofit organization to put a building on Lot 4, Block 66 in the north portion of an industrial lot on Fifth Avenue, just off Bennett Street. The approval is the latest development in the shelter's ongoing process to have a fixed location since it was created in 2006 and...
The siding on the exterior of the swimming pool building is deteriorating and borough officials are working to ensure that the facility stays safe and looks its best for years to come. At its April 11 meeting, the borough assembly unanimously approved spending an additional $261,000 to purchase and install new siding on the building, bringing the total appropriation to $436,000. “The … project involves removing the existing cedar siding and replacing it with a tongue and groove PVC-like siding,” wrote Capital Facilities Director Amber Al-Ha...
A wise economist made the point last week that while it’s true more people have left Alaska each of the past 10 years than have moved here, the problem isn’t so much the departures as it is the drop in arrivals. Alaska has long had a high turnover rate — not everyone likes the weather, the isolation or the lifestyle. They come, they see, they decide to move on. Which means Alaska needs to draw in a constant flow of new residents so that the keepers outnumber the shakers who get away. It’s that shortage of enough people moving to the 49th st...
When I was a kid, I suppose my role models were mostly professional athletes. Sports was everything (no offense to school or my parents or Boy Scouts leader). Though I never was very good at any of them, particularly sports or school or being an obedient kid. I managed just one scouting merit badge — in stamp collecting. I did much better imagining myself as the star pitcher, throwing the ball against the side of the house every evening as if it were the perfect strikeout pitch in the big game — until my dad yelled at me to stop thumping the...
Another school year is almost done and, once again, I’m truly impressed by the caliber of young people Wrangell produces. For the past two years, I’ve interviewed the students of the senior class for their graduation projects. Each story revealed unique characters who were all equally prepared to walk into adulthood, albeit by different paths. I have a list of five standard questions I ask in the senior project stories: What’s your name? What’s your project? What are your plans post-high school? What will you miss about high school? What wo...
Ketchikan, her close community neighbors and all of Southeast Alaska are in danger. We are at risk of losing our Alaska Marine Highway System ferry run to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, permanently. Ferry service to Prince Rupert is vital. It is the only way we can reach the mainland quickly at a reasonable cost. Prince Rupert is less than a seven-hour trip from Ketchikan versus a 44-hour trip to Bellingham, Washington. The one-way fare to Prince Rupert is approximately $400 for a Subaru, driver, one passenger and a dog, while the fare for...
The Alaska House has debated the state budget and, as the representative for southern Southeast, helping to create the budget is one of my main duties. There were some amendments in the House Finance Committee that are encouraging: We increased funding to Head Start, public radio, the multi-state WWAMI medical program to accommodate 10 more Alaska students, dive fisheries assessments, and community-based grants through the Division of Senior and Disabilities Services. My biggest issue with the current budget is that there is a significant defic...
Do you know who the first Christian martyr was? Or who replaces Judas Iscariot as the 12th apostle? Or how to escape imprisonment by Herod Agrippa? Wrangell’s youth Bible Bowl team knows. For the first time in 15 years, the town has a competitive Bible quiz crew in The Salvation Army competition. Since December, the five team members have met regularly, sometimes as often as twice a week, to study and memorize the biblical Book of Acts. The competition involves two rounds of 50 questions. Each team member answers questions on a tablet that calc...
Like waiting for yeast to rise, customers of Sweet Tides Bakery will have to wait a little longer for the business to reopen. The bakery had planned to open this Wednesday, however a permitting backlog at the state's food safety and sanitation office has delayed the reopening by a week or possibly more. It's proving to be a blessing and a curse, said owner Shawna Buness. The delay has given Buness and her husband Jordan more time to finish the cabinetry and décor, but it's hard to run a...
Twentieth-century U.K. novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch once wrote that “the bereaved cannot communicate with the unbereaved.” Grief can have intense physical and emotional effects on people, from nausea and increased blood pressure to changes in memory and behavior. Knowing how to help a grieving person can be difficult, but Rev. Julie Platson of Sitka believes that communicating with the bereaved is not only possible, but essential for healing. Platson will visit Wrangell’s St. Philip’s Episcopal Church on April 29 from 1 to 2:30 p....
For the seventh year in a row, federal managers have closed the Stikine River chinook subsistence fishery to help preserve weak runs of the returning salmon. The U.S. Forest Service, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board, last week announced the closure to run May 15 through June 20. “The preseason forecast for the Stikine River is 11,700 large chinook salmon (greater than 28 inches in length), which is below the escapement goal range of 14,000 to 28,000 large chinook,” the Forest Service statement said. Though this yea...
The U.S. Forest Service is seeking suggestions for sustainably managing the Tongass National Forest, with a series of public meetings across Southeast Alaska through May 19. The Wrangell public meeting is planned for 5 to 7 p.m. May 5 at the Nolan Center. “Instead of commenting on a plan we present, we’re asking folks to help develop it,” according to a Forest Service announcement of the meetings. That means looking for input from individuals, groups, government agencies and Alaska Native tribes about ideas such as “wood products, clean w...
Drifting ash from a volcanic eruption in the Russian Far East forced Alaska Airlines to cancel more than 100 flights last week, including its northbound and southbound jets through Wrangell and Petersburg last Thursday and Friday. Flights throughout Alaska had largely returned to normal by Saturday, other than a couple of missed flights to Sitka that day as a portion of the ash cloud hung around the community. Although a “very large area” of gas left over from the ash cloud still hovered over the eastern Gulf of Alaska near Sitka by Sat...
Klawock’s debut as a cruise destination has been pushed back to 2024, according to an announcement from Klawock Heenya Corp. and its partner Na-Dena, the joint-venture tourism development company formed between Native corporations Hoonah-based Huna Totem Corp. and Fairbanks-based Doyon Ltd. Klawock Heenya was previously scheduled to welcome Oceania Cruises’ 650-plus-passenger vessel Regatta for four port calls this summer. The first phase plans for the Port of Klawock consist of a temporary welcome center featuring local artists, retail wit...
Elias Decker wants to elevate the stature of the pep band drummer - literally. For his high school graduation project, the 18-year-old senior is building a platform to allow the band's drummer to play alongside the saxes, clarinet and cowbell. The idea for the platform came to Decker when he attended basketball regionals in Juneau in March. Two drum platforms were set up at opposite ends of the bleachers in the Thunder Mountain High School gym so that bands from competing schools could take...
Former Wrangell resident Elizabeth "Betty" Ann Twitchell Keegan, 90, passed away on March 31 in Moses Lake, Washington, following complications of a stroke. She was born April 19, 1932. As a child, Betty and her mother traveled the Lower 48 following Betty's father from Seattle to San Diego and Miami with stops in between while he served as a career sailor in the U.S. Navy. During World War II, Betty and her mother lived with her grandmother in Wilkeson, Washington, when her father fought in... Full story
A Washington state-based bank has sued the Alaska Native corporation based in Yakutat over what the bank says is $13.3 million in unpaid loans — sparking fears in the community about the loss of Indigenous lands. Yak-Tat Kwaan received some 36 square miles of land near Yakutat through the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. In the past three years, Yak-Tat Kwaan has borrowed millions of dollars from Spokane-based AgWest Farm Credit Services to launch a logging business on its property. The timber harvest caused a backlash from s... Full story
Monday, April 10 Fraudulent check. Parking complaint. Assault. Welfare check. Tuesday, April 11 Nothing to report. Wednesday, April 12 Agency assist: Search and Rescue. Agency assist: Petersburg Police Department. Thursday, April 13 Welfare check. Friday, April 14 Parking complaint. Parking complaint. Citizen assist: Vehicle unlock. Saturday, April 15 Parking complaint. Agency assist: Hoonah Police Department. Agency assist: Ambulance requested. Agency assist: Hoonah Police Department. Sunday, April 16 Agency assist: Ambulance requested....
The Alaska Department of Natural Resource has approved the 292-acre Whale Pass Timber Sale. The sale, in the community of Whale Pass, population about 60, requires a 100-foot buffer between the harvest area and residential property. A request for reconsideration of the commissioner’s decision is due no later than April 26. Whale Pass considers tourism and recreation as its major economic industries, according to James Greeley and Katie Bode, who are Whale Pass residents and representatives of Friends of Whale Pass. “We know that the pla...
