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Cruise ship companies serving Southeast Alaska are taking reservations for the summer season after losing all of last year to the pandemic - but not all cruise lines will return this year. Windstar Cruises, which brought a 208-passenger ship to Wrangell about 10 times in 2019, had originally planned its first 2021 cruise out of Vancouver on May 20, an 11-day voyage scheduled to stop in Wrangell, Ketchikan, Juneau and Haines. The sailings would have continued throughout the summer with a larger...
The Kennicott on Jan. 8 was the first state ferry to call on Wrangell in more than two months, and after a brief early morning unloading and loading it sailed away for Ketchikan. "Wrangell had one ferry in November, no ferry in December, and is scheduled to have only one ferry in January," Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said. "This is an unacceptable level of service." Von Bargen said the state is making decisions about ferry service "in a vacuum without consideration of the impacts on communit...
The Legislature is set to convene next week in Juneau, with the Permanent Fund dividend perhaps the biggest issue lawmakers will confront. Gov. Mike Dunleavy wants the state to pay individual Alaskans $1,900 this spring, a cash supplement to last year's dividend intended to help boost the pandemic-weakened economy. The governor also wants to take more money out of the Permanent Fund earnings reserve to pay a $3,000-plus dividend this fall, calculated on a 40-year-old formula the Legislature has...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly unanimously voted Tuesday evening to extend the borough's COVID-19 emergency declaration through March to ensure the community remains eligible for any financial assistance. The assembly also voted to extend its resolution allowing the suspension of in-person assembly meetings until it can make accommodations for social distancing. The assembly declaration retroactively extends through March an emergency ordinance that had expired Dec. 31, which was a continuation...
Jan. 13, 1921 Richard Suratt, who went to New York City some time ago to oversee the coloring of the films he had sent in from here, returned to Wrangell on the steamer Seattle on Friday. Mr. Suratt reports that the great Metropolis is very quiet at this present time. Jan. 11, 1946 Opening of the Mildred Pierce Shoppe, a ladies’ and children’s apparel and men’s and boys’ clothing shop, is announced this week by Mrs. Mildred Pierce and her son, Bob Ferguson, owners. The store, formerly the Wee Moderns Shop, owned by Mrs. Harold Maki, is already...
A few minutes before 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9, an 87-year-old driver pressed the gas pedal instead of the brake on his truck and launched from the parking lot into the water of Heritage Harbor. The driver was helped from the truck and did not appear seriously injured, said Police Chief Tom Radke. The chief said it was his understanding that the driver hit the wrong pedal. A medical incident may have led to the accident, but Radke said the exact cause was uncertain. The vehicle pushed through a...
The Women in Safe Homes (WISH) domestic violence shelter in Ketchikan serves Wrangell families too, and its board seat designated for a Wrangell member will be up at the nonprofit organization's annual meeting in February. Kay Larson has served two terms representing Wrangell on the WISH board, and she is asking if anyone else in the community would want to serve in the seat. WISH has operated a 24-hour shelter for domestic violence victims and their families since 1980, said WISH Executive Dire...
It was depressingly sad to watch the scenes in the Capitol last week as destructive rioters took over the historic building, furious at the outcome of the presidential election. I have been in the Capitol, as have many Alaskans - for meetings and on tours - and have enjoyed the annual Memorial Day and Fourth of July concerts on the Capitol lawn. I have stood and watched orderly protests, and felt good that the building is so accessible to the public. The Capitol is a monument to laws, not lawles...
To help gain support for his proposal to pay Alaskans $5,000 in Permanent Fund dividends this year, Gov. Mike Dunleavy cites numbers that the Alaska Permanent Fund gained $10 billion on its investments March 31 through Nov. 30, 2020. The state can afford the extra spending, he says. That's not entirely accurate. It's misleading. Before the fund gained $10 billion in eight months, it lost $7 billion in the first three months of the year. But the governor is not talking about those money-losing...
The Wrangell Wolves high school boys basketball team is tentatively scheduled to open the season in Metlakatla on Jan. 30, followed by their home opener against Craig on Feb. 6, according to the latest schedule provided by Activities Director Trisa Rooney. The schedule is still tentative, Rooney said in a Jan. 8 email, particularly the games against Metlakatla and later Haines. The district will announce when it has the final schedule. After two bye weeks for rest and practice, Wrangell will...
While the season's schedule is still tentative amid the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wrangell Wolves are preparing for a new season of basketball. This will be Coach Cody Angerman's fourth season leading the high school boys team. The upcoming season will be unique in a variety of ways, he said, but his goals for the team are the same as always. "I have this same kind of mentality coming into every season," he said. "I just want to make sure that we're the best team possible...
July July 2: With recent national attention on racial bias and police brutality, the community met via web conference June 29 for an evening town hall meeting to discuss policing practices in Wrangell. The meeting provided an opportunity for residents to ask questions of Chief Tom Radke and to share their opinions on the Wrangell Police Department. Those who spoke in the meeting, by and large, expressed support for the police and their current practices. July 9: The cities of Wrangell,...
Is it a coincidence that one of the world's largest mineral deposits is located near the world's largest sockeye salmon spawning grounds at Bristol Bay? And if the Pebble Mine removed the bulk of those deep deposits that are part of the world's magnetic field, could it disrupt the ability of salmon to find their way home? A study, funded by Arron Kallenberg of Homer, founder/CEO of Wild Alaskan Co. and a third-generation Bristol Bay fisherman, aims to find out. "It's not even been 10 years since we've discovered that salmon, sea turtles and...
The city received an application to recall Mayor Steve Prysunka early this week from a group unhappy with Wrangell's face mask requirement. But the filing was premature, said Borough Clerk Kim Lane, who returned the application. State law says a recall application may not be filed during the office holder's first 120 days on the job. That date will not come until early February for the mayor. Lane said the city has its own statute, as well, which copies the 120 days from the state. Don...
The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium will host a training program for certified nursing assistants in Wrangell, starting next week. While the program has existed in Wrangell in the past, it is still a relatively new program under SEARHC leadership. This will be the third CNA training program offered by the Wrangell Medical Center. Issabella Crowley was one of six people who completed the first SEARHC CNA program in Wrangell in 2019. She has worked as a CNA with the hospital for a...
SEATTLE (AP) - Alaska Airlines has banned more than a dozen passengers from all future travel with the company after they refused to wear masks and caused chaos during a flight from the nation’s capital to Seattle. The airline said the 14 passengers were rowdy and argumentative on a Jan. 7 flight from Dulles International Airport, outside Washington, D.C., to Seattle. The flight departed the suburban-Virginia airport the day after pro-Trump rioters stormed and damaged the U.S. Capitol. “Last night, a number of passengers onboard Alaska Air...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - The usual transportation difficulties in rural Alaska have presented unique obstacles for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, officials said. Dozens of remote villages lack hospitals and road connections, while ultracold freezers required for storage of specific varieties of the vaccine are essentially nonexistent, Alaska Public Media reported. Tribal health care providers responded by mobilizing a massive effort delivering thousands of doses to remote areas. Providers airlifted vaccine to villages using a fleet of...
Monday, Jan. 4 Agency assist: Harbor Department. Agency assist: Panic alarm. Threats. Criminal mischief: Domestic violence. Citizen assist: Dog tags. Citizen assist: Assistance with vehicle. Agency assist: Public Works. Tuesday, Jan. 5 Summons service. Theft. Summons service. Illegal parking. Letter for removal from licensed premises. Agency assist: Wastewater treatment. Wednesday, Jan. 6 Agency assist: Petersburg Police Department. Agency assist: Public works. Thursday, Jan. 7 Agency assist: Hoonah Police Department. Citizen assist: Vehicle...
Gerald G. "Puzzy" Holland, 101, passed away Dec. 20, 2020, at home, surrounded by loved ones, in Salem, Oregon. He was born in Calumet, Michigan, in October 1919. He was the fifth of nine children born to Anna and Paul Holland. The family resettled in Rock Island, Illinois, in the 1930s, where he met and married Rosemary Normoyle in 1942. They built a home on a little farm and raised six children, near dozens of relatives in the area. Puzzy served in the Seabees in the U.S. Navy during World...
Former Wrangell resident Suzanne Maryella Grant Leverett died Dec. 22, 2020, in Gig Harbor, Washington. She was born Oct. 28, 1940, in Wrangell, to Neil and Lillian Grant, a pioneer Wrangell family. She graduated Wrangell High School in 1958. “Suzanne Leverett, loving mother, grandmother and friend passed away in the company of loved ones at the age of 80 after a long battle with cancer,” her family wrote. She met her husband, John, at Western Washington University, where she received her teaching degree. They married in 1962 and settled in Gig...
