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Meeting in a special session Aug. 12, a full City and Borough Assembly unanimously approved setting aside $500,000 in funds for the Wrangell Medical Center. Interim CEO Marla Sanger approached the Assembly last month seeking permission to obtain a line of credit for that amount from a bank. While appreciative of the hospital’s concerns, Assembly members had not favored the idea of approving such a line through a private bank due to concerns about interest and accountability. Instead, they offered to provide a reserve from money in the G...
At its regular monthly meeting Aug. 13, Wrangell’s Planning and Zoning Commission continued its evaluation of entitlement properties held near Thoms Place. The territory is part of 9,006 acres transferred to Wrangell in April by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. In addition to Thoms Place, these include parcels at St. Johns Harbor, Mill Creek, Olive Cove, Crittenden Creek, Earl West, and Sunny Bay, as well as other areas on Wrangell Island. Different options exist for how best to z...
In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago. August 12, 1915: According to advices given out, plans are being made for a new jail building for Wrangell. While only the estimate is yet made, it is believed that it will be carried through and the new jail building will be built on the site now occupied by the old courthouse. The facts of the affair have not yet been released but it is felt that the building will be two stories and will possibly contain a room for the commissioner's office. We have long felt the need of some new government...
Wrangell's teachers, parents and students are schools are gearing up for a new year, with registration currently ongoing. While some programs have already started up, classes will begin on Aug 27. A number of changes will greet students when they walk through those doors, some more noticeable than others. Mondays will be a bit shorter for starters, at least for students. School will let out at 2 p.m. once a week to allow teachers time to develop "professional learning communities," which are...
In last week’s issue, it was erroneously reported that the two seats on the Borough Assembly expiring this year are held by Daniel Blake and Julie Decker. Terms for Assembly members Becky Rooney and David Powell will be expiring....
Correction to August 13 Police Report as provided by Wrangell Police Dept.: Wednesday, August 5 Citation issued to Mark Hamley, 38, for Driving with a Revoked License and No Proof of Valid Insurance. (Gary Hamley’s name had erroneously been provided.) Monday, August 10 Person reported fireworks going off. UTL. Person report fireworks going off. Police issued a verbal warning to stop. Tuesday, August 11 Traffic Hazard: Manhole cover was off and was put back on. Long term DVO order served. Wednesday, August 12 Traffic Stop: Verbal warning for d...
To the Editor: On September 1, 2015, the United States will fully complete its broadcast transition to digital TV. What effect will this have on Wrangell? Sadly nothing. As a community, Wrangell was once served by a free television broadcast service known as ARCS (Alaska Rural Communication Service). For some unexplained reason, this service was shut down in Wrangell approximately 10 years ago. ARCS is largely funded through the State of Alaska, with communities picking up the minimal last mile of costs for powering and maintaining the...
You never know what you might see when watching the skies. Local artist Charity Hommel was outside last Wednesday with her husband, Joe, when he spotted a strange flash of light moving in the sky. "To us it looked like a meteor," Hommel recounted. The idea seemed plausible enough, as the annual Perseid meteor shower was most visible from Aug. 11-13. The couple was at their home on Howell Avenue at the time, on the backside of Mount Dewey, looking northward. "It was pulsing," she recalled,...
Whatever one might say about the year’s fishing harvests, it wouldn’t be fair to say the Southeast purse seining fleet is in the pink. The state forecast for 2015 anticipated a 58 million pink salmon harvest for Southeast, but so far harvests have not been living up to the expectation. “We are not even coming close,” explained Dan Gray, Alaska Department of Fish and Game management coordinator for Southeast fisheries in Sitka. With the season already in its ninth week, only 22 million pink salmon have been reported harvested by seiners so far,...
After a rainy summer punctuated by four cancelled tournaments, Muskeg Meadows Golf Club decided to end its season early. Following the Sea Level Seafoods tournament last weekend, the course is now closed to regular play for the year. Course Manager Laurie Overbay Burrows said this season has been slower than most, following one of the wettest Julys on record for Southeast Alaska. Wrangell absorbed 9.81 inches over the month, with two-thirds of its days experiencing some precipitation. Muskeg...
(AP) – Four residents of Sitka were missing Tuesday after heavy rain caused several landslides, emergency responders reported. At least three landslides were reported after 2.5 inches of rain fell in just 24 hours. A sinkhole was also reported. The people who were unaccounted for were all in a neighborhood hit by one of the landslides, Sitka fire spokesperson Sara Peterson said. She did not know if the people were together when the landslide occurred. An office building just outside town was evacuated because it is near one of the landslides. S...
As Alaska moves into its end-of-summer rain pattern, wildland fire activity across the state has moderated. But in the Lower 48, the fire season remains in full swing, with the National Preparedness Level moved to five, the highest level of planning and organizing of resources, in reaction to increasing fire danger. In a media release, the Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service (AFS) reported five Type-2 emergency firefighting crews departed last week from the base on Ladd Army Airfield at Fort Wainwright. Coming from Chevak, Fort...
Alaska’s salmon season so far has been characterized by ups and downs, and it will be a stretch for the total catch to make the forecasted 221 million fish. “It just depends on how these late returning pink salmon at Prince William Sound performs, and whether or not pinks pick up at Southeast. It’s possible, but we would still have to harvest around 30 million more salmon,” mused Forrest Bowers, Deputy Director of the state’s Commercial Fisheries Division. One of the biggest fish stories of the season, of course, was the surprising double ru...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Authorities want to talk to a man who donned a fairly realistic bear costume head and all and wore it when harassing a mother bear and two cubs trying to feed on pink salmon in an Alaska river. The incident happened Monday on the Chilkoot River near Haines, said Alaska Fish and Game Assistant Area Management Biologist Mark Sogge. It wasn’t immediately known what the man was trying to accomplish. A crowd had gathered at a weir, used to count fish, because the sow and two cubs have frequently showed up there to feed dur...
Staff working for Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski stopped into Wrangell on Aug. 14, during a string of visits this month to communities in Southeast. Setting up a mobile office outside the post office, Phillip Dodd and Ben Cotter caught up with constituents during the Friday lunch rush. “We do it every year, in different communities,” Cotter explained. “It’s kind of a good way to reach out.” The pair staffed one of several mobile offices deployed by Alaska’s congressional delegation this month, whil...
Test results for shellfish compiled by the local Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) office have been released. Working locally in partnership with Wrangell Cooperative Association, IGAP's primary mission is to undertake projects focused on addressing environmental and quality of life problems. On April 20, IGAP staff and volunteers collected littleneck and butterneck clams, cockles, horse clams and other commonly-consumed shellfish from three beach locations along Zimovia...
