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School district administrators have recommended using a collection of unspent accounts and general fund reserves to cover the $44,000 deficit in the travel account from past state competition, while acknowledging that does not address the funding problem for the current or future years. The school board will consider the staff recommendation for wiping out the negative balance in the state travel account at its Nov. 20 meeting, along with discussing options for covering travel costs for this...
After a yearlong public process, the U.S. Forest Service has announced eight potential cabin sites in the Petersburg and Wrangell Ranger Districts. After considering the environmental impacts and accessibility of hundreds of sites suggested by members of the public or identified by staff, the district picked the ones that are most likely to see substantial traffic and compete for federal funding, and announced them in a draft decision published Thursday, Oct. 19. There are three sites in the...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association’s Tl’átk - Earth Branch is looking for a place to build a greenhouse after tribal citizens objected to putting one near the community garden, due to the area’s proximity to Indigenous gravesites. The borough assembly was slated to consider Tl’átk – Earth Branch’s request for a parcel of land next to the garden at its Sept. 26 meeting. The parcel is near Indigenous gravesites and Tl’átk was considering maintenance and signs on the gravesites as part of its plan for the greenhouse. However, after some triba...
As demand for seafood grows, including across Indiana, a remote farm is harvesting thousands of pounds of salmon every year — on land. But the genetically modified fish teeming in the Albany, Indiana, tanks are continuing to draw pushback from environmental advocates who say the “Frankenfish” threaten local ecosystems and are not a sustainable food source. Engineered by biotech company AquaBounty Technologies, the “AquAdvantage” salmon is the first such altered animal to be cleared for human consumption in the United States. A boycott a...
Oct. 25, 1923 Volume 1, Number 1, Buy 1, of the School News of the Wrangell Public School is off the mimeograph. The publication is brim full of interesting reading pertaining to school life in general and the Wrangell school in particular. The School News, like every other publication that has appeared on the journalistic horizon during the past 300 years, “fills a long-felt want.” For the past quarter-century or more, there has been a class in English in the Wrangell school each year, with students eager for an opportunity to make use of the...
(From left) Wilder Harding and Zeplyn Stutz participate in an Alaska Day cake walk at Muskeg Meadows on Saturday, Oct. 21. The event, which was sponsored by the high school class of 2025, featured snacks and carnival games, and coincided with a 1-mile dash, 5K, 10K and half-marathon sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Department. Alaska Day commemorates the formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States in 1867....
Alaska is seeking to turn mariculture — a form of marine farming that includes oysters and kelp — into a $100 million industry in the next 20 years. With two kelp farm permit holders and an operating oyster farm near town, Wrangell is home to a nascent mariculture industry of its own. Robert Lemke of Salt Garden Farm has permits for two kelp farms, each three acres, on the Back Channel near Madan Bay and Earl West Cove. Though he’s held the permits since 2020, he hasn’t started a kelp crop yet and is planning to do so this season for the fir...
Economic Development Department staff met Oct. 18 with the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau to review the borough’s travel marketing strategy and prepare it for final bureau approval in November. The group discussed industry trends, the borough’s strengths as a destination and the methods it should use to expand tourism in town. Potential visitors might ask, “why come (to Wrangell) when other communities north and south of us are easier to get to and have more perceived amenities,” said Economic Development Director Kate Thomas. She belie...
While it seems holiday advertising starts earlier and earlier (and earlier) every year — even further in advance than election campaign advertising, which is annoying enough — it’s not too early for the community to think about sharing this holiday season. Thanksgiving is just a month away; Christmas and New Year’s another month after that. Planning events, rounding up volunteers, collecting names and donations, buying food and gifts all takes time, as does checking the calendar twice to avoid scheduling conflicts. Wrangell has long excelled at...
Alaska officials who say the stars are aligned for the long-dreamt, long-on-the-odds multibillion-dollar North Slope natural gas project are confusing shiny stars with black holes. Like the black hole the state already has poured close to a billion dollars into over the past two decades, thinking that international markets would like expensive Alaska gas better than lower-risk, less costly gas from anywhere else. But unlike black holes, where the force of gravity is so strong that nothing escapes, the Alaska gas line dream continues to survive...
I want to share my thoughts about the development of Wrangell’s waterfront properties. My opinions are based on the unique experience our family has enjoyed from residing in many Southeast communities. Raised and schooled in Ketchikan, serving in the U.S. Coast Guard in Sitka, banking and serving in my first elective office on the school board in Wrangell and living in Juneau as commissioner of the state Department of Economic Development and then later as governor have given us a terrific opportunity to see change throughout Southeast. F...
"Why would you want to move to a small town in Alaska?" That was the question put to me by the Sentinel's publisher, Larry Persily, when I applied for the position of editor. My answer? I was looking for an adventure. Before coming here, I had never been near the state of Alaska. I did live in Fargo, North Dakota, from 2004 to 2006, which is a lot colder. But it's a dry cold; I heard that phrase a lot while I was there - that and "uff da". I was born in Richmond, Virginia, and spent my...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association is nearing completion of its 5,000-square-foot maintenance and warehouse building on Zimovia Highway. The facility is in its second year of construction, though planning for the project started about a decade ago. Bill Willard, Transportation Department manager, said he hopes to finish the work later this fall. The project is just waiting on some electrical items and then crews will finish the last of the interior work on the building, which is next door to the tribal offices. As with construction projects n...
No question housing is tight in town, and the Wrangell Cooperative Association is trying to help. WCA already has used federal funds to build two single-family homes, which it sold to tribal members, and now is partnering with the Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority on a rental duplex. WCA is interested in providing more housing to help ease the shortage in town, said Esther Aaltséen Reese, tribal administrator, last week. Any further development, however, will depend on funding, decisions by the tribal council and available lots, which...
The Lady Wolves volleyball team started their season with three big wins and three tough losses in the Klawock seeding tournament Oct. 19-21. After winning their first match against Skagway 3-0, the team played “a really tough match” against Craig that also resulted in a 3-0 win for Wrangell. “The girls did really, really well” in the Craig match, said co-coach Brian Herman, who is leading the team with Shelley Powers this season. They “came back from a late-game deficit, they came back and won.” Then, to round out their winning streak, the...
The high school swim team continued refining its skills and building its endurance at the invitational in Petersburg Oct. 13 and 14. The team competed in 20 individual and four relay events and the six athletes earned a combined 10 personal bests. Maddy Davies had a standout weekend, competing in four individual events and two relays. Typically, high school swimmers log a maximum of 400 to 500 yards of racing at any given meet, explained coach Jamie Roberts. In Petersburg, however, Davies swam nearly 1,500 yards. “She’s really gravitated to...
Wrangell wrestlers excelled on the mat at the Southeast Showdown at Thunder Mountain High School in Juneau. "We went 34 wins, 15 losses and 30 pins," said coach Jack Carney. "Four of the losses were to our own teammates." Competing on Friday, Oct. 20, and Saturday, Oct. 21, five of the 11 wrestlers who made the trip took the top spot in their weight brackets, going undefeated at the Showdown. Winning first place were senior Keegan Hanson at 152, junior Della Churchill at 120, sophomore...
Retired troller John Church has found a new use for the "miles of troll line" left over from his fishing days. He makes "Kostick Stars," named for the artist who created the geometric wire pieces almost 50 years ago. Church started building small geodesic domes - "that was my COVID hobby" - and then "branched out" to making the stainless-steel wire stars. "I just make them and give them away." He was one of several people who turned out for the weekly crafts night at the Irene Ingle Public...
Though fewer Wrangell residents died in 2022 than in 2021, and more babies were born last year to Wrangell moms than the year before, the longer-term numbers continue to show more deaths than births for the community, matching the downward trend in the population. In the past six years, 128 babies were born, while 145 residents died between 2017 and 2022. Statewide, there were fewer babies born in 2022 than in the previous year, extending a yearslong downward trend, according to the Alaska Vital Statistics 2022 Annual Report. Births in Alaska t...
The board of the Mariners’ Memorial is accepting applications from community members who would like to see their loved ones featured on one of the memorial’s plaques. Each application should include the name of the deceased, a brief tribute that will be featured on the plaque and a story about the life of the mariner, which will be housed on the memorial’s online server. “(The Wrangell Mariners’ Memorial) mission is to help tell each mariner’s story,” the form reads. To maximize the process’s accessibility, memorial board members will be...
The school district plans to install three air quality sensors to monitor temperature, humidity, noise, carbon dioxide, pollution — and even vape smoke. The district can use the data it collects from the monitors in its request for state funding to repair and improve parts of the decades-old school buildings, including new windows, insulation, roofing, heating and ventilation systems. The district received the sensors at no cost with a year of free monitoring under a program with the Alaska Department of Education and the sensors’ man...
People in need are invited to take part in The Salvation Army’s assistance programs this holiday season, said Capt. Chase Green. They are offering food boxes for Thanksgiving and Christmas based on family size, as well as a Christmas toy-giving plan for children called the Angel Tree Program. “Thanksgiving (assistance) is food-based, and they can sign up right now,” he said. “We really want to encourage people to sign up.” According to Green, the application process is simple and confidential. Identification, such as driver’s licenses, S...
Bystanders watched through the windows of Petersburg IGA as wildlife troopers and police captured a young bear inside the grocery store on Oct. 17. Authorities later killed the orphaned bear, which they said was unlikely to survive the winter. Alaska State Wildlife Troopers Josh Spann and Sgt. Cody Litster tried to push the bear out the door, hoping to get it back into a wooded lot and on its own again. However, “it was starting to create more problems and a spectacle,” Litster said. “A dog catcher’s pole was used. It was brought out across...
As the borough is developing a portion of the former Wrangell Institute property near Shoemaker Bay for a residential subdivision — Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) — the Wrangell Cooperative Association has asked for two adjoining parcels at the northern end of the property. “We want it for a memorial for people who attended the Wrangell Institute,” said Esther Aaltséen Reese, tribal administrator. One possibility is constructing a gazebo with Alaska Native art at the site, to create “a place for reflection,” she said. “Have it as a...
Monday, Oct. 16 Motor vehicle accident. Bear complaint. Agency assist: Harbor Department. Tuesday, Oct. 17 Dog Impound: Dog returned to owner. Letter served to remove a person from a licensed establishment. Domestic violence order served. Wednesday, Oct. 18 Agency assist: Ambulance. Thursday, Oct. 19 Traffic stop. Agency assist: Fire Department Warrant service. Welfare check. Friday, Oct. 20 Speeding complaint. Citizen assist. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for no plate. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for expired registration. Saturday, Oct. 21...
