Sorted by date Results 1 - 20 of 20
With the final votes tallied by the canvass board earlier that morning, the Wrangell Borough Assembly met last Thursday, Oct. 3, to confirm this year's local election. There were several positions open for election on the assembly, school board, and an open seat on the port commission in the election on Oct. 1. The public also voted on a proposition to remove the Wrangell Medical Center Board from the city's charter. In total, there were 365 votes cast on election day, plus an additional 41...
Kicking off last Monday, Oct. 7, Evergreen Elementary School has begun a Read-A-Thon to see if their student body can spend a total of 80,000 minutes reading. This would be roughly 55 and a half days doing nothing but reading. With 158 "readers" listed on the school's webpage for the competition, that is only roughly 506 minutes per student. Librarian Jen Gerald said that if the students can hit the 80,000 minute goal, they will have a "pirate day" at the school. If they go above and beyond...
October 9, 1919 The Town of Wrangell now owns the float at the rear of the Wrangell hotel. A year ago the council took an option for one year on the float, paying Mr. Grant $50, which amount was to apply on the purchase price of $500 in case the float was taken over by the town within one year. At the regular meeting of the council last Thursday evening it was decided that the council would exercise its option. Accordingly a warrant was ordered drawn in favor of Mr. Grant for $450. October 6, 1944 Last Friday Governor Ernest Gruening and...
September 30 Welfare check: All was good Citizen assist: Unlocked vehicle October 1 Trespass October 2 Identity theft Traffic complaint October 3 MVA: Pedestrian MVA October 4 Noise complaint Theft: Fraudulent use of credit card October 5 Citizen assist Welfare assist: Person was okay and well Traffic stop citation was issued to Alan Reeves, 60, for failure to provide proof of insurance. Verbal warning for speed. October 6 Domestic dispute Agency assist: Harbor Department Agency assist: DOT Citizen assist Agency assist: Line crew Alarms Found...
As many of you know, the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) service to the port of Prince Rupert, British Columbia (B.C.) ended on October 1st. Although that ferry route is no longer running, there are ongoing developments in hopes of restoring service. When the Alaska Department of Transportation (AK DoT) announced early last month that it would end service to Prince Rupert, their reasoning was that AMHS was unable to enlist the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to provide armed protection for the U.S. Customs & Border Protection agents...
Stephani Ann Ruks, 77, died on August 16, 2019, in Wrangell, Alaska. Ann was born in Louisville, Kentucky and moved with her family to Wrangell when she was young. She graduated from Wrangell High School in 1961 and worked in Nome and Anchorage and the Alaska Pipeline in Valdez. She lived 18 years in Arizona before returning home to Wrangell where she worked at Wrangell Medical Center until her retirement. Ann was a member of the hospital auxiliary and served in hospice for many years. She was...
This Saturday, Oct. 12, the Wrangell Ministerial Association will be holding an Operation Christmas Child event. The annual program, operated by the Christian organization Samaritan's Purse, sends shoeboxes full of Christmas gifts, school supplies, toiletries, and other items to children in need around the world. The Wrangell Ministerial Association has played a role in Operation Christmas Child for many years. According to the event's Facebook Page, Wrangell started packing and collecting...
The Wrangell Parks and Recreation Advisory Board met last Wednesday, Oct. 2, to discuss the increasing use of trails and parks by tour groups, as well as beginning to lay the groundwork for the next Helping Our Parks project. Tourism has been steadily increasing in Wrangell, with approximately 22,000 tourists expected to visit town via cruise ships next year. As locals may have noticed this spring and summer, tour groups could be seen being led around Wrangell's popular sites, including the...
After a season that has seen constant improvement, as Coach Drew Larrabee said in several interviews, Wrangell's cross country season has come to a close. Last Saturday, Oct. 5, the ASAA State Championships took place in Anchorage. The girls cross country team qualified for state after taking third place in Regionals. Ethan Blatchley was the only boy on the boys team to qualify for state when he ran a sub-20 5k. Wrangell's girls took fourth place in the Division 3 portion of the competition....
The Wrangell High School swim team competed in the Ketchikan Invitational Swim Meet this past weekend, Oct. 4 and 5. In a newsletter to the high school, Coach Jamie Roberts pointed out that this was the first meet for team members Sophie O'Brien and Jacob Allen. She also pointed out that of the 49 individual events her swimmers competed in, there were 27 personal best times. "This was the first meet, and probably the only meet, that the entire team travelled to," said Roberts. "We had all 13 swi...
The water level at Tyee Lake was at 1,344.9 feet on Sept. 30, which is roughly 60 feet higher than it was this time last year. As part of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency, Tyee Lake dedicates its power to Petersburg and Wrangell, while Swan Lake produces power for Ketchikan. While the 1,345 foot water level is lower than the norm for Tyee Lake, it is still higher than the 1,285 foot water level in September 2018, said Petersburg Borough Utility Director Karl Hagerman. If water were to stop...
Monday, Oct. 7, members of the Forest Service and high school oceanography students, boated over to the east side of Wrangell, near Channel Island, to retrieve the remains of a gray whale that washed up back in June. The whale, a 30-foot male, was one of the victims in a UME, or "unusual mortality event" that has seen numerous gray whales die. According to NOAA, as of Sept. 30, there have been 47 gray whale strandings in Alaska, or 212 across the whole American, Canadian, and Mexican west...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) – New technology distributed in an Alaska community is expected to help detect and study conditions that lead to landslides, a researcher said. The landslide detection system in Sitka will monitor soil moisture levels and help residents and scientists understand landslide patterns, the Sitka Sentinel reported Thursday. University of Oregon postdoctoral researcher Annette Patton introduced the system at a Sitka Chamber of Commerce event Wednesday. Patton helped install the system funded through a $2.1 million grant from the N...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A federal agency has rejected an iconic Alaska tree for listing as a threatened species due to climate warming. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday that yellow cedars do not warrant additional protections because trees affected by warming grow in areas representing less than 6 percent of the overall area where they can be found. A spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity calls the yellow cedar decision reckless. Shaye Wolf says yellow cedars f...
Halibut catches fluctuate based on the ups and downs of the stock from California to the farthest reaches of the Bering Sea. If the numbers decline, so do the catches of commercial and sport fishermen. But similar reductions don’t apply to the boats taking millions of pounds of halibut as bycatch in other fisheries. In the Bering Sea, for example, there is a fixed cap totaling 7.73 million pounds of halibut allowed to be taken as by catch for trawlers, longliners and pot boats targeting groundfish, with most going to trawlers. The cap stays t...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska’s alcohol regulatory board has voted to oust its director, though the law also gives the state’s marijuana regulatory board a say. The boards share Erika McConnell as director. The Marijuana Control Board this summer held a vote of confidence in McConnell, a motion board chairman Mark Springer says he stands by. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Thursday voted to boot McConnell. Chairman Bob Klein praised her work ethic and administrative skills but said he sees a disconnect between the board’s wishes and how...
The body of a hunter who went missing this morning after his skiff capsized in Duncan Canal has been found, according Amanda Norcross, a spokesperson with the United States Coast Guard. The man was confirmed to be Doug Larson, 50, of Petersburg, according to Tim DeSpain, public information office supervisor with the Alaska State Troopers. The body was found 400 yards east of his last known location by an MH-60 Jayhawk dispatched from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka sometime between 11 A.M. and...