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While ground work is underway at the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision upland from Shoemaker Bay, borough officials are at work researching options for how the residential lots — as many as 42 — will be sold. The sale is expected by next summer or fall. “People are excited about it,” said Kate Thomas, the borough’s economic development director. The community has never seen so many building lots come up for sale at one time, she said in an interview Friday, Oct. 6. “This is a new opportunity for us.” Borough officials want...
The Wrangell Wolves cross-country team braved near-freezing temperatures and stiff competition to take home their second state championship title in a row in Palmer on Saturday, Oct. 7. The boys team won the Division III title, and though the girls did not have enough runners to score for Wrangell, the two girls team members finished the season strong. Sophomore Boomchain Loucks took first place out of the 80 runners in the boys race, with a time of 17:28.0. He maintained a substantial lead...
As the downtown barge ramp nears the end of its useful life, the borough is weighing its options for replacing and possibly relocating this piece of critical infrastructure. Assembly members and borough staff discussed replacing the ramp in its present location or moving it to 6-Mile or the Marine Service Center. Alternative locations for the ramp could free up the downtown area for tourism development but might also inconvenience the shipping companies that prefer to deliver their freight directly to downtown businesses. The ramp’s life e...
A team in Coffman Cove helped set free two killer whales that had been trapped in Barnes Lake on northeast Prince of Wales Island since mid-August for six weeks, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The orcas presumably stranded themselves by chasing prey into the lake during a high-tide cycle. Transient, or Bigg’s, killer whales are a genetically and culturally distinct population of orcas that live in the Pacific Northwest and feed primarily on marine mammals, according to NOAA. Barnes Lake has two entrances f...
The last cruise ship of the season, the 650-foot Seabourn Odyssey, as seen from the Nolan Center, tied up at the City Dock on Sunday, Oct. 8. Wrangell was on the itinerary for more than 130 cruise visits this summer, ranging from 40-passenger Alaska tour boats to several ships with capacity to carry hundreds of guests each, such as the Odyssey with room for 450 passengers. If all of the ships had been full, the traffic would have totaled more than 28,000 visitors, about one-third more than the...
Oct. 11, 1923 Wrangell’s John Hanson has received letters of patent on two inventions that will greatly facilitate the business of trolling. One of Mr. Hanson’s inventions is a gaff hook, and the other a trolling swivel. The swivel relates to an apparatus used by fishermen on a line for catching fish of any kind. The invention includes the provision of a spring within the body of the swivel, thereby permitting a certain degree of resilience when a fish strikes so that the line may give and so that danger of losing the fish will be greatly red...
Clint Kolarich, who served as Wrangell's district ranger since June 2019, has moved to Ketchikan to work as one of the Tongass National Forest's two deputy forest supervisors. He officially stepped into the new job on Sept. 13. District employee Austin O'Brien will step in as his interim replacement for the next 120 days. In the Wrangell district, Kolarich was responsible for the management of the area's natural resources. "It's all the folks in the district that do the work," he said. "The dist...
Wrangell may soon be home to its own unique variety of beer. James Leslie of Alaska Waters has plans to open the town’s first brewery in a century, and though he still has plenty of permitting hurdles left to clear, the borough assembly had no objection to his state brewery license at its Sept. 26 meeting. He hopes to start brewing in winter of next year at the very earliest. Opening a brewery “has always been bouncing around in my head,” said Leslie. “I’ve messed around with brewing a little bit. It would be cool if there was a brewery h...
Wrangell’s sales tax revenues from online commerce continue to climb as more residents shop for more things online, and as more sellers follow the law and collect sales tax and send the money to the borough. As much as that’s good news for the municipal treasury, it’s not particularly good news for local business owners and their employees, and it’s not a good indicator for the long-term economic future of the community. No doubt there are a lot of things that people want and need to buy which are not available in town. And no doubt much of...
One of the many reasons — perhaps the biggest reason — that much of the public has lost confidence and even interest in Congress is that a shrinking number of the 535 House and Senate members bother to do their job anymore. They are too busy posturing for political gain, posting on social media for financial gain and positioning themselves to gain an edge on election rivals. Pretty soon, I expect some of them might steal a publicity page from Taylor Swift’s football playbook and be seen with star athletes to gain even more attention. The diffe...
The Sept. 20 article in the Wrangell Sentinel made it clear that the community of Wrangell has been infected with cancer. “Dam” cancer to be exact. That being the Nieuw Amsterdam and the Westerdam, along with accompanying disease names the Queen Elizabeth, the Ruby Princess and Grand Princess. Not too long ago the people of Wrangell rejected the idea of turning the former sawmill site into some type of tourist-related mecca. Who gave this upcoming plague permission to infect Wrangell? Were our community leaders contacted? The mayor? The ass...
The swim team continued to drop times and log personal bests at the Kayhi Meet in Ketchikan on Sept. 29. Wrangell's seven swimmers participated in 28 individual and four relay events. Together, they received 18 personal-best times, with each athlete logging at least one personal best. Jack Roberts dropped two seconds off his 100-yard breaststroke for a personal best of 1:02.14, which earned him second place. "He has been hovering around a mid to high 1:04 for the last couple of seasons, so this...
The community’s burn pit at the solid waste transfer station on the north end of the island is closed until further notice after a rockslide Friday morning, Oct. 6, destroyed the steel racks, I-beams and concrete blocks at the facility. “Due to concerns with stability of the cliffside, and the need to rebuild the burn pit, wood waste, brush and large burnables will not be accepted until further notice,” said a borough notice issued on Friday. “The area around the burn pit has been barricaded off and is off-limits to the public.” Though th...
Alaska Seaplanes has decided to shut down its Wrangell and Petersburg operations, citing poor economics. Its last flights to the communities are scheduled for Oct. 31. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t financially sustainable with the ridership,” Carl Ramseth, general manager, said Thursday, Oct. 5. “It hurts to pull out of those two communities.” Alaska Seaplanes started scheduled service into Petersburg in spring 2021, with daily flights from Juneau, and added a Sitka-Petersburg-Wrangell-Sitka flight in May 2022. The air service, which was founded i...
New voices are sought in addition to returning singers as the community chorale begins rehearsals for the 2023 Christmas concert on Monday, Oct. 16, in the high school music room. “I never know until we have our first rehearsal,” chorale director Bonnie Demerjian said of how many people to expect at the first rehearsal. “We have a group of people that have been with the (chorale) well over 20 years, and then every year we get new people, so it’s always a surprise.” While the chorale is always looking for new participants, Demerjian said she...
The American Legion’s Christmas party for children, now in its 13th year, came from a suggestion by Marilyn Mork’s daughter, Jenny, after they had attended a Christmas party for kids in town. “They had a party which was like, hot dogs and hot cocoa or something like that,” Mork said. “Santa was there, and they all got to see Santa, and got a candy cane, and an orange or apple or something. And that was it.” Afterward, Mork remembered her daughter’s suggestion. “Jenny said, ‘Wouldn’t be awesome if we could … give them a gift?’” While the par...
Commercial trolling for king salmon in Southeast is back on the desk of the National Marine Fisheries Service, following on judicial rulings this past summer that saw the fishery shut down — and then reinstated — as a case brought by environmentalists wound its way through the courts. NMFS issued notice on Oct. 4 that it is beginning work on an environmental impact statement and review of alternatives to its incidental take permit which allows Southeast trollers to harvest kings, many of which are destined for the Pacific Northwest feeding gro...
First-time candidate John DeRuyter won a three-year term on the school board in the only contested race in the Oct. 3 municipal election, which drew the fewest number of voters to the polls in years. The turnout was down 64% from last year’s election, when the mayor’s office and two bond issues were on the ballot. The borough assembly certified the election results on Oct. 5, with 192 votes cast on election day and 26 absentee and early votes added to the count. The total of 218 ballots is down from 602 votes cast in the 2022 election; 486 vot...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the following positions for the 2023-2024 school year: - Paraprofessional: This is a part-time, 9-month classified position, working 5.75 hours per day. Salary placement is in Column A of the Classified Salary Schedule. Job duties include but are not limited to working with students individually and in small group settings in Special Education. A High School Diploma or equivalent and an associate degree or the ability to pass the ParaPro Assessment is required. Start date: ASAP....
Monday, Oct. 2 Traffic stop: Citation issued for speeding. Traffic complaint. Tuesday, Oct. 3 Motor vehicle accident. Motor vehicle accident. Wednesday, Oct. 4 Traffic stop: Warning for no tail lights. Citizen assist: Abandoned vehicle. Traffic stop: Warning for faulty equipment. Thursday, Oct. 5 Welfare check. Traffic complaint. Domestic disturbance. Friday, Oct. 6 Agency assist: Fire Department. Agency assist: Fraud. Motor vehicle accident: Deer. Suspicious circumstance. Traffic stop: Warning for headlight out. Noice complaint. Traffic stop:...
Benny Johnson displays a frozen 29-pound tuna, one of many that he sold off the fishing vessel Castaway while at the Reliance Float on Oct. 3. He and his fishing partner, Joshua Moore, have been bringing their catch to Southeast Alaska since 2014. They try to make it up to Wrangell to sell their catch every year, but the number of communities they stop in depends on how long supplies last, Johnson said. This year's sales trip brought them to Ketchikan and Coffman Cove before Wrangell, with...
Alaskans have high rates of chronic health conditions that can lead to death, and they are failing to follow lifestyles that would keep those chronic conditions at bay, according to a newly released state report. Two-thirds of Alaska adults are overweight or obese, nearly a third have high blood pressure and 27% have high cholesterol, according to the state Department of Health’s annual Alaska Chronic Disease Facts report. COVID-19 became the third-leading cause of death for Alaskans in 2021, after cancer and heart disease, and the various c...
The Alaska Division of Public Assistance has temporarily stopped dropping people from Medicaid for paperwork-related reasons after thousands of low-income Alaskans — including families with children — lost health coverage that they may still be eligible to receive. Nearly 14,000 households have lost their Medicaid coverage in the past two months. Almost 265,000 households were enrolled in the program as recently as April, before the state embarked on the federally required review of participants’ eligibility. The state Division of Public Assis...
Mickey Prescott has gone fishing. Mitchell "Mickey" Julius Prescott was born on May 24, 1940, and died in Wrangell at his fish camp, Mickey's Fish Camp, on Sept. 28, 2023. He was 83 years old. Mickey was born in Everett, Washington, to Wrangellites Ralph and Edith Prescott (Johnson). Mickey is survived by his favorite sister, Mercedes Angerman, and his seven adult children: Joy Prescott (Ed Bruns), Vivian Prescott (Howie Martindale), Tracey Martin Prescott (Dennis Martin), Vincent Prescott...