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In a special workshop at City Hall on Monday, administrators at Wrangell Medical Center and members of its governing board met with the City and Borough Assembly to discuss the cost of a new facility. The municipally-managed hospital has been interested in constructing a new facility for at least a decade, with its current building in use already for the past four decades posing a number of maintenance and compliance issues. The Assembly had directed WMC staff a year ago to seek architectural...
The Cub Scouts held a recruiting drive at Evergreen Elementary School on Monday evening, with a number of boys and their parents stopping by to express interest. The purpose of the Boy Scouts of America is to promote youths to do things for themselves and for their communities, instilling among other things values of patriotism, courage and self-reliance. Part of the broader Scouting movement, Cub Scouts is geared toward elementary school boys from kindergarten through fifth grade. A pack is bro...
November 22, 1917: The Wrangell chapter of the Red Cross raised $104 for Christmas packets for soldiers. By Christmas the United States will have 1 million men under arms. The Red Cross has, in addition to its many other labors in humanitarian work, undertaken the task of sending each American soldier a Christmas packet filled with good things and good will. It was possible to have Christmas packets made up for $41 each. When the Wrangell chapter received notice of the undertaking, the time was so limited that it had to hurry and transmit the...
A wide-ranging recall of fire extinguishers produced by Kidde has been issued, after a device failure led to a death and multiple injuries. Announced last week by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission in conjunction with its Canadian counterpart, the recall involves 134 different models of extinguisher manufactured domestically and in Mexico between January 1, 1973, and August 15, 2017. The extinguishers were sold in red, white and silver, and are either ABC- or BC-rated. In all,...
Alaska Wildlife Troopers were called out to the 10-mile point of Nemo Loop Road late last week, after a slain buck was reportedly unsalvaged. Trooper David Bozman drove out to the scene on November 3, where a spike buck lay at the roadside. It was likely the deer was killed on or around the day. “This is the second wasted deer this year that I know of,” he commented. Another deer, this time a doe, had reportedly been shot and abandoned at a gravel pit near 3-Mile Zimovia Highway on or around September 23. Under Alaska Department of Fish and...
October 29 William Knecht, 58, of Wrangell, was cited for shooting game from a roadway. Knecht was contacted after he was observed shooting at a deer from the roadway on Zarembo Island. He was issued a $300 citation in the District Court at Wrangell. Paul McIntyre, 52, of Wrangell, was cited for shooting game from a roadway. McIntyre was contacted after he was observed shooting at a deer from the roadway on Zarembo Island. He was issued a $300 citation in the District Court at Wrangell. October 31 A summons was issued to Leroy Hughes, 55, of...
Monday, Oct. 30 Report of Trespassing. Bear sighting. Arrested Tasha McColloch, 32, on charges of DUI. Suspicious circumstance. Tuesday, Oct. 31 Parking complaint. Report of trespass. Citizen Assist: Officer unlock vehicle. Report of gunshots: Officer UTL. Wednesday, Nov. 1 Welfare check. Criminal mischief. Disturbance. Agency Assist: WMC. Thursday, Nov. 2 Traffic stop: Verbal warning for driving habits. Suspicious smell. Friday, Nov. 3 Disturbance: Criminal mischief. Citizen Assist: Civil stand-by. Agency Assist. Found property: Firearms:...
Wrangell Public Works announced Monday it will be extending a window for free disposal of metal waste at the local scrapyard through the month’s end. The department had initially opened a month-long period for residents to get rid of household scrap without fees on October 11. An expectation of a barge arriving in mid-November to take excess salvage off the city’s hands had prompted the move, with the hope that residents might be encouraged to clean house a bit. Following a lengthy, expensive and still unresolved cleanup of severely con...
The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities reported that the M/V Kennicott has been temporarily taken out of service. After completing its southern run to Ketchikan on November 4 it entered dry dock for repairs. “It’s got a leaky seal on its port-side propeller,” explained Aurah Landau, public information officer for Alaska Marine Highway System’s South Coast office. She estimated repairs should take until mid-month to complete, and the ferry may return to service later next week. In the meantime, service in Southeast has been re...
In last week’s issue of the Sentinel, the time of day for the October 28 fire at Freeman and Sons was misreported. Rather than happening that evening, firefighters arrived to the scene shortly after 11 a.m., wrapping up their response during the lunch hour....
The City and Borough Assembly authorized a pair of grants to be applied for in its name while narrowly nixing a third. Meeting Tuesday, the first item the body considered was participation in the Community Development Block Grant program offered by the Department of Agriculture. An application put forward to the program for $304,297 in funding would fund just over half of rehabilitation work to the building envelope of the Public Safety Building. A recently revised cost estimate for the project put together by Jensen Yorba Lott totals...
Wrangell got its first, brief introduction to winter on Monday, with a temporary dousing of snow and sleet. But chimneys have already been puffing away since September as minimum temperatures for the month dropped to 42 degrees. After remaining chilly throughout the following month, the thermometer finally dipped below freezing for the first time on November 2. With summer well past and winter by now on the way, keeping homes and businesses heated becomes an important proposition. In a housing...
Alaskans pull home packs of fish from their freezers all year round and know it will cook up nutritious and delicious. Yet there is still a perception that fresh seafood is always better than frozen. A Sitka fishermen’s group has set a course to counteract that stereotype, and prove that properly frozen fish has clear advantages over the ‘fresh’ fish sold to consumers. More than 80 percent of the fresh fish/shellfish enjoyed by Americans are imports and can sit for a week or more before being purchased at retail counters. And most people don’t...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) – There’s a new public defender in town. Nathan Lockwood has taken over from Jude Pate, who is now a state appellate attorney. Pate is still in the Sitka office but will be handling appeals from across Alaska. Lockwood’s journey to Sitka began with a revelation in Colorado and ended with a move last month from Kenai, where he has been in the public defender’s office the past four years. In an interview with the Sentinel, Lockwood, who grew up in Soldotna, said he became a lawyer after skiing for most of his 20s in Vail, C...
At last week’s Park Board meeting, the department head reported the lack of qualified lifeguarding staff has been causing problems. Parks and Recreation director Kate Thomas explained last Wednesday that Wrangell’s public pool operates 63 hours per week, requiring 105 lifeguard hours to operate. While 10 available staffers would be ideal, the department currently only has four to try and cover shifts. Both herself and the assistant director have been spending up to half their time filling in at the pool. The pool is the most heavily used ame...
Wrangell’s wrestlers headed up to Anchorage over the weekend to participate in Anchorage Christian School’s 2017 Lime Solar Invitational. Taking place beyond the usual regional play, the ACS invitational is often touted as a midseason preview into the state finals, with schools from around the state sending teams. This year’s tournament was also the first featuring an all-girls bracket, which had 27 teams participate. In the boys varsity 106-pound weight bracket, Wrangell senior JD Barratt finished in fourth place overall. After a first-round b...
PETERSBURG – Trooper Cody Litster was about to pack everything he needed for the day into his truck one Thursday morning when he got a phone call about a shooting in his jurisdiction, 50 miles away. "It seems like it's all making sense now that I've asked a few more questions," said Litster, on his first call with a school administrator in Kake, who reported the shooting. Litster, a wildlife trooper, was in Petersburg when he first heard from Kake, a small village with no local police th...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)– The issue of crime has so far dominated the special legislative session in Alaska. The House on Monday entered its third day of floor debate on amendments to a bill prompted by public outcry over crime that makes changes to a criminal justice overhaul passed last year. Critics said the overhaul was too soft on crime. The overhaul, based on recommendations from a special commission, stemmed from concerns about the state’s growing prison population and high rates of recidivism. The commission, among other things, rec...
PETERSBURG – Medical staff, an advocacy group and the police station in Petersburg have created a three-pronged approach to sexual assault cases. “Understanding what sexual assault is, it’s kind of eye-opening,” said Annette Wooton, the executive director of a Petersburg advocacy group called WAVE, or Working Against Violence for Everyone. “For a lot of people, when you look at the statutes, you realize ‘oh, I’ve been assaulted.’” The Sexual Assault Response Team, or SART, is headed by local police, medical professionals and WAVE. Wooton said...
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) – Alaska researchers warn that the changing levels of ocean acidity could have grave consequences for red king crab populations in the Bering Sea. The acidity of waters off Alaska could change dramatically over the next 50 years, leading to possible crab stock failure in about 100 years, said Robert Foy, director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Kodiak Laboratory. A change in pH, the scale of acidity, is occurring as more carbon dioxide is dissolved in the water, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported . Researchers expec...
