Sorted by date Results 1 - 17 of 17
A scene reminiscent of the road construction on Front Street last year will soon unfold on Zimovia Highway as the Alaska Department of Transportation and SECON Construction begin a renovation project extending from downtown to 13 Mile. The project will have two parts; the crushing of rock and asphalt production, and the actual laying of roadway and other replacement items. With a Sept. 15 project end date, SECON is scheduled to begin soon – though no firm date has been set for the start of a... Full story
The Wrangell Planning and Zoning Commission approved a temporary use permit at the former Wrangell Institute property to allow for sorting and processing of wood from a timber sale – as well as the creation of a logging road for access to the property. Alcan Forest Products of Ketchikan made the request in preparation for a timber cut on property owned by the Alaska Mental Health Trust. Previous discussion about the status of a road through the property, for the purpose of logging, fell flat d... Full story
The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium partnered with the Center for Disease Control this week to hold a meeting on traditional foods – and showcased a variety of options available to Natives and others for healthy eating. The meeting was held at the James and Elsie Nolan Center starting on Monday, June 17 and is a required component of the CDC’s Traditional Foods Program and for all tribal entities receiving grant money under a federal program aimed at diabetes prevention in Ame... Full story
Monday, June 10 - Citation issued to Stormy Gallant, age 20, for no Valid Operator License, Failure to Provide Proof Of Insurance and verbal warning given for faulty equipment. Tuesday, June 11 - Citation issued to Thomas L. Weise Jr., age 44, for Failure to Provide Insurance and verbal warning for driving habits. - Disturbance reported – Minor Consuming Alcohol. Wednesday, June 12 - Disturbance reported - Officer responded and was verbal only. - Cell phone brought into station. Owner was contacted and will pick up. Thursday, June 13 - O...
Saturday, June 8 Alaska Wildlife Troopers Wrangell Post contacted Jared Bright, age 38, of Petersburg. Investigation revealed Bright was operating a 2011 Willie Boat on the Stikine River without enough personal flotation devices for each individual on board the boat. Further investigation revealed Bright failed to register his vessel. Bright was cited into Wrangell District Court with a bail amount of $110 for no PFD and $60.00 for failure to register his boat....
Wrangell’s theater will be making the switch to digital on the weekend of June 28 - 30. Digital has a number of benefits, not the least of which will include lower shipping fees – rather than paying for 60+ pounds of film to be express-shipped to (and from) Wrangell each week, the film will arrive on a much smaller, lighter hard drive. Additionally there will be fewer man hours involved in splicing the films together and in actually running the film – this means that, even with the cost of going to digital – we will not need to raise our tic...
Jerry E. Elliot, a resident of Wrangell, Alaska from 1969 to 1989, died at home June 14, 2013. He was born in Amboy, Minn. July 5, 1931. Jerry graduated from Central Valley High School outside Spokane, Wash. in 1949 and shortly thereafter joined the Navy serving 5 years in Korea and Japan. After discharge he went to work for Pacific NW Bell in the Columbia Basin area. He married wife Carol in 1956 and they had 2 daughters. In 1969 they moved the family to Wrangell where Jerry took over the... Full story
“WWJD” for the text savvy, is means “What Would Jesus Do?” It is often referred to when trying to figure out the right course of action when dealing with other humans and their needs. All to often these days, people are so focused on their own selfish desires that what is good for others is of little consequence. When observing others in need it's shrugged off with, “It's not my problem”. Occasionally some one does make it their problem, and unselfishly puts someone's need before their own and they are hailed as hero's. In Isaiah 58, God ham...
A celebration of the 2013 Wrangell King Salmon derby was the highlight event in downtown last Thursday as the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce held their annual awards ceremony at the James and Elsie Nolan Center. Jeannie Easterly took home the top prize of $6,000 in the annual event, which saw Mark Soeteber and Jeff Soles take second and third place, respectively. After the ceremony, Easterly recalled her memories of the derby – and the moment she hooked her King. She related that she and her h...
In 2012, thousands of square feet of the greens at Muskeg Meadows golf course were attacked by hordes of ravens – the ubiquitous local bird seeking food in the fertile soil and rich grasses of the course. At the end of last year the course seemed on the path to correcting the problem, and at the beginning of the 2013 tournament many of the areas affected by the ravens had healed and were sprouting green grass again. And then they returned, looking for grubs in the ground of the course. Last y...
Casey Shilts works dockside on Monday morning as some of the first Dungeness crab of the 2013 commercial fishery arrives in Wrangell....
It’s back to the drawing board for halibut iTags that will soon tell us more about where the fish travels than ever before. The internal tags, which were deployed in 30 halibut two years ago, were the first to test Smart Phone geomagnetic advances to track the migrations of fish. The tags record magnetic field strength on three axes and have accelerometers and pitch and roll detectors, explained Tim Loher, a biologist with the International Pacific Halibut Commission. “Without being able to tell whether or not your tag is horizontal, you can...
The trial of a Wrangell man alleged to have sexually abused a minor last year begins next week, with the First District courtroom scheduled for four days of jury selection and proceedings. An indictment filed in September accuses 33-year old Doug Ely of three counts of sexual assault against a minor under the age of 13 – two unclassified felonies and one Class A felony. Jury selection began Monday morning and ran through Tuesday. As of deadline for this story a full jury panel had not yet been seated. Ely’s attorney, public defender Jude Pate o...
The U.S. Department of the Interior is distributing more than $26 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes funding to Alaskan communities in compensation for taxes that could not be levied on federal lands in their jurisdictions during fiscal year 2013. Out of that total, the City and Borough of Wrangell will receive $389,845. The U.S. Department of the Interior announced reauthorization last week of the PILT program which provides monetary compensation to local governments that contain national forests, Bureau of Land Management public lands,...
JUNEAU (AP) — More than 200 scientists have signed onto a letter asking Congress to enact legislation protecting 1.9 million acres of salmon habitat in this country’s largest national forest. The proposal is billed at the “Tongass 77,” referring to the number of watersheds in the Tongass National Forest that would be protected from activities like logging, mine development and road building. There is currently no such bill pending in Congress but the roughly 230 scientists who signed the letter, dated Monday, as well as other activis...
You know it’s getting close to summer when the Bearfest bears are back in town. This trio of bears currently stands watch outside the Nolan Center. Bearfest 2013 is scheduled for July 24-28....
With Petersburg foregoing a tax-free day this spring, is Wrangell next on the list of Southeast cities that will abandon their customer-friendly days of no sales tax in the Borough? This past weekend’s tax-free day was the latest sales holiday where money the Borough would usually take in did not make it into city coffers. With the distinct possibility of a 5.5 percent sales tax rate reduction looming on the October ballot, the City and Borough of Wrangell could see an end to the tax-free holidays local citizens have enjoyed since its i...
