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Beginning Sept. 7, the annual Sharing Our Knowledge conference of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes and clans will be held in Wrangell for the first time. This five-day event will take place at the Nolan Center and will feature a film festival, a panel discussion and a wide variety of research presentations on subjects ranging from Indigenous history to art. Organizers expect an estimated 200 people to arrive in town for the event. Because the anticipated attendance exceeds the capacity of Wrangell’s hotels and bed and breakfast rentals, conf...
The borough followed through on discussions from earlier this summer and the assembly last week approved a contract for reassessment of the value of all commercial and residential properties in the community. The intent is not to raise revenue — that is determined by the property tax rate the assembly sets every spring as part of the budget process. The reassessment is to ensure that valuations are “equitable across the board,” explained Borough Manager Jeff Good. After the assembly adopts its annual budget, it considers available reven...
Another chapter closed in the long history of City Market last Saturday. Owner Rolland Benn-Ingles Curtis - or just Benn as most people know him - retired after 58 years of serving the community. Curtis, 73, began working at the store in 1964 when he was almost 15 years old after much discussion with his father, Rolland. Had Curtis not agreed to work at the store, its story could be much different today. "He said, 'If you're not going to work in the store, I might as well get rid of it ... and...
With names like delicious milky, hawks wing, chaga, puffballs and fairy farts, mushrooms found throughout Southeast are diverse in shape, color and edibility. Some can be used as fabric dyes, and some can kill a person if eaten. Over the course of last Friday and Saturday, field mycologist and author Noah Siegel educated resident foragers on which mushrooms are safe and which should be avoided. For about 90 minutes last Friday evening, Siegel, of Royalston, Massachusetts, spoke to a group of...
Aug. 31, 1922 A call for a meeting for the purpose of organizing a rod and gun club was made two weeks ago, but there was such a small turnout that those present thought it better to defer the matter of organizing until there could be a more representative gathering of those interested in such an organization. An organization can accomplish things that the individual cannot. Organizations in Wrangell and other small towns will tend to crystallize public sentiment and make it possible to check the wholesale slaughter of game animals that is now...
Hannah's Place is situated in a cheerful yellow house, filled with natural light and enough baby supplies to care for a small army of infants, which is exactly what the organization's executive director, Nedra Shoultz, has spent the past 11 years doing. "What we are here for is really education and support," she explained. Along with prenatal and parenting classes, the center distributes clothes, books, diapers and other baby essentials to parents in need. "If someone found themselves in a...
In less than five weeks, voters will decide whether the borough should borrow $12 million to repair the schools and Public Safety Building. On Aug. 23, the borough assembly unanimously approved placing two questions on the Oct. 4 municipal election ballot that will ask voter approval to cover the renovation costs. One of the ballot issues would approve borrowing $8.5 million to repair the water-damaged Public Safety Building, while the other would approve borrowing $3.5 million to help fund repairs at the elementary, middle and high schools....
Whether Alaskans and the other 434 members of the U.S. House will be addressing Rep. Sarah Palin or Rep. Mary Peltola likely will be announced late Wednesday. State elections officials plan to announce that day the final vote tally and election winner under Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system — it’s the deadline for any absentee ballots from overseas to arrive and be added to the count. In-person voting for the election was held Aug. 16. With a near-final ballot count released last Friday evening, more than 190,000 votes had been cast...
The borough assembly and staff spent a fair amount of time at last week’s assembly meeting, explaining the intent of a contract with an appraisal firm to reassess the value of all the property in town. Homes, businesses, industrial properties, empty lots — they will all get a new look to make sure the borough’s valuation is fair. This is about treating property owners equitably. It’s also about following state law, which requires that cities and boroughs assess property “at its full and true value.” This is not about raising taxes, though seve...
Given my aversion to long planning sessions, whiteboards with erasable markers and consensus building exercises, I can’t believe I am saying this: The town needs a plan for its economic future. A forum to start making that plan is a good beginning. Wrangell’s economic future is as cloudy as a fall day in Southeast, as uncertain as the state ferry schedule, and as chancy as winning a raffle. Improving those dreary odds can’t be based on hope. Wrangell needs a realistic plan. The chamber of commerce is sponsoring an economic forum on Sept. 30 at...
What started as a sort of fact-finding trip to Petersburg turned into a deeper appreciation for something I've done for decades, and something many take for granted. Every Wednesday, the Sentinel is delivered to mailboxes and stores throughout Wrangell, making its way into the hands of readers. Many more copies are sent out of town and state and even into Canada. But it takes a lot of work to get it there. I've worked in almost every department of the news industry, from proofing pages to...
My voice is an echo. So many people write to the Sentinel to express their thanks and appreciation for the great work that the folks at the Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department and especially the EMT corps do for this community. I don’t have any better words than what has already been expressed but I want to make sure that everyone involved knows how much I appreciate the rapid response to my call, the good care and the kindness you all displayed. And a huge thank you to the police department and the medical staff at the emergency room. The c...
Top: Baylee Daugherty bounds up the stairs for the first day of classes at Evergreen Elementary School last Thursday. Middle: Jayden Mathieu gets some last-minute backpack help from grandmother Nicole Szyller on the first day of school at Evergreen Elementary. Bottom: Lillian Edens heads into Evergreen Elementary for the start of school last Thursday, after saying goodbye to her mother, Laura Edens....
After their last Christmas concert in December 2019, members of the community chorale packed up their music stands and filed away their songbooks, unaware that they would not be meeting again the next year. But now that two Christmases have gone by without this treasured community tradition, Bonnie Demerjian, the group’s longtime musical director, has decided it is time to bring the chorale back. For Demerjian, restarting the community chorale is “a responsibility as well as a pleasure.” She has guided the group through 23 years of conce...
On election day in five weeks, Wrangell will vote whether to give the borough permission to sell or lease all or part of the former 6-Mile sawmill property, which the borough purchased earlier this summer in hopes of spurring economic development in town. Sale or lease of borough property valued at over $1 million requires approval from a majority of voters. The borough paid $2.5 million for the 32-acre parcel. The assembly Aug. 23 voted unanimously to put the question on the Oct. 4 municipal election ballot. Assemblymember David Powell...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium’s expansion of its long-term care unit at the Wrangell Medical Center remains on target for construction completion at the end of 2022. In June, SEARHC broke ground on an 1,800-square-foot addition to increase the unit’s capacity by four beds. According to Lyndsey Schaefer, director of marketing and communications at SEARHC, the additional beds will be available for use in early 2023. Spots in the 14-bed long-term care unit are “hard to come by,” said Schaefer. Once construction ends and the new...
After opening its successful Icy Strait Point development to cruise ships 18 years ago, the village corporation for Hoonah is expanding its interests in tourism, particularly new cruise ship terminals. Huna Totem Corp. last week said it will work to develop a new cruise terminal in Juneau, following announcements earlier this summer that it will develop a cruise ship destination in Klawock, on Prince of Wales Island, and one in Whittier, on Prince William Sound, which is just a short train ride or drive to Anchorage. The corporation’s first d...
At the start of the final week to file for borough assembly, school board or port commission, Wrangell was still short of candidates to fill half of the open seats. The deadline to file for the Oct. 4 municipal election is 4 p.m. Wednesday. As of Monday afternoon, candidates had filed paperwork for four of the eight races on the ballot. Patty Gilbert, who serves on the borough assembly and previously served on the school board, has filed to run for mayor. Steve Prysunka, in his sixth year as mayor, has decided not to seek another term....
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium will switch its food service contractor for the Wrangell Medical Center from NANA Management Services (NMS) to Aramark Corp. The switch in providers, according to SEARHC marketing and communications director Lyndsey Schaefer, was a “business decision.” SEARHC will officially transition from NMS to Aramark on Oct. 1. All 20 current NMS employees in Wrangell will be offered jobs with Aramark, Schaefer said last week. NMS is an Alaska-based, Native-owned company that provides food and security ser...
British Columbia may be able to move ahead with cleanup of the abandoned Tulsequah Chief mine just a few miles from the Taku River that flows into Alaska waters. Cleanup of the property just under 20 miles from the Canada-U.S. border, about 40 miles from Juneau, has been held up while the mine’s bankrupt owner, Chieftain Metals, of Ontario, was in receivership proceedings in court. This month’s end of the receivership wipes away any legal holdups that have prevented the provincial government from taking action. The only statement made by the...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — An Alaska state corporation is the only remaining oil-and-gas leaseholder in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after a second private company gave up its lease in the controversial area. Other than the state putting down millions of dollars in hopes that drillers might someday want to look for oil in ANWR, only two private companies submitted winnings bids in the 2021 lease, and now both have given up on the prospects and returned their leases. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said Knik Arm Services, a small real estate a...
More than 50 years after many Alaska Natives were unable to apply for their rightful 160 acres of land because they were fighting in Vietnam, a solution is now in place that overcomes laws and regulations that stifled their efforts for decades. About 27 million acres of public land in Alaska managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management are being made available, with details and applications available online, according to an order filed Aug. 15 in the Federal Register. The parcels are mostly in the Northwest, Southwest and Interior regions...
Five dogs born in Haines in February were confirmed this month to be part wolf, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Carl Koch. The state last month sent samples from six suspected wolfdogs to the University of California Davis for genetic testing. State wildlife managers have received results from five of the samples so far. Some of the owners and the state suspected the animals were wolf hybrids after one registered as 50% wolf on a DNA home test. “Some of (dogs) were described as difficult to manage by their o...
The percentage of Alaska children who are up to date on their routine vaccinations has fallen considerably since the beginning of the pandemic, prompting concern among health experts about the return of certain serious illnesses that had been all but eradicated in the U.S. until recently. Although there have been no outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses — including measles, mumps or polio — identified in Alaska so far, recent flare-ups of those diseases in the Lower 48 and multiple countries are part of a disturbing trend that epidemiologi...
A legal dispute that began when Gov. Mike Dunleavy took office in 2018 will not be resolved before this year’s gubernatorial election. Last week, a federal judge set a 2023 timeline for a trial to determine financial damages in a case involving Libby Bakalar, one of four state employees who sued Dunleavy, his former chief of staff Tuckerman Babcock and the state after being illegally fired when Dunleavy took office. Babcock is now a candidate for state Senate and Dunleavy is running for reelection. The state has settled with three of the p...