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Caitlin Cardinell One of three candidates running for an unexpired two-year term on the Wrangell Public School Board. (Incumbent member Robert Rang and candidate David Wilson will be featured in next week's Sentinel.) Age: 27 About the candidate: "I'm originally from Minnesota, I've been living in Wrangell five years now, and I've held a variety of jobs throughout the community. I originally was working with Alaska Crossings, spent some time working up on the Stikine River, and now I'm currently...
At its 27th Annual Fundraiser Dinner on Saturday, the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce announced its honors list for 2017. There were five nominees for this year’s Wrangell Citizen of the Year: school board member and Wells Fargo Bank employee Aleisha Mollen; Sourdough Lodge proprietor Bruce Harding; Alaska Vistas operator Sylvia Ettefagh; Dr. Lynn Prysunka at Alaska Island Community Services; and Evergreen Elementary School secretary Renate Davies. Of the candidates, Prysunka was awarded this year’s honor, having served the community as a fam...
Carter Howell shows off his catch during the Tiny Tots Scrap Fish Derby on Saturday. Dozens of kids angled for whatever they could catch, and were rewarded with toys and games donated by a variety of local businesses....
Between Midnight Madness in December and the King Salmon Derby in April, Wrangell's annual Tent City Days celebration gives residents a reason to shake away the winter blues and have a little fun on the town. Put on by volunteers and area businesses, the four-day series of events will try to feature activities fit for kids and adults alike. The celebration kicks off tonight at the Elks Lodge with its second-ever chowder cook off, starting at 5 p.m. Whether corn, crab, clam or something else...
Future use of borough lands at Crittenden Creek, Sunny Bay and Mill Creek should continue to be recreational in nature, Wrangell’s Planning and Zoning Commission concluded at its regularly scheduled meeting Dec. 10. The entitlement properties were among those transferred to Wrangell from the Department of Natural Resources earlier this year, just over 9,000 acres of undeveloped lands on the mainland and surrounding islands. Planning and Zoning has been offering recommendations to guide future use of the properties along with the Economic D...
The Economic Development Commission concluded its part of the process for zoning entitlement lands acquired this year by the City and Borough of Wrangell. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources approved transfer of 9,006 acres to the community in April. The entitlement lands include parcels located at Zarembo Island, Mill Creek, Olive Cove, Crittenden Creek, Earl West, Thoms Place and Sunny Bay, as well as other places on Wrangell Island. The properties are largely unzoned and unsurveyed,...
Despite the unseasonably agreeable weather this winter, Wrangellites can still shake off some of the mid-season lassitude at the town's annual Tent City Days celebration. The festival harkens back to frontier days of the 19th century, when Wrangell played an active role in both the Southeast Alaska and the Klondike gold rushes. The celebration kicks off tonight with a first-time chowder cook off, held at the Elks Lodge at 6:30 p.m. Contestants are asked to bring pots of their finest by 5 p.m....
Kicking things off with a new borough manager in Jeff Jabusch, 2014 for Wrangell was not only a period of changes, but also one of building and continued development. Pavement was poured at the Marine Service Center, a number of roads were resurfaced or due to eventually see improvement, and the city was able to showcase itself to other regional communities by hosting several prolific functions. January Wrangell Cooperative Association collected 210 registrations for Tlingit-Haida members at...
Innovations continue to flow from Wrangell as the Path to Prosperity (P2P), an annual competition for entrepreneurs, announced that James Edens and his concept for Edens Marine Resources will be among the 12 competitors moving on to the final round of the contest. "I'm trying to use fishery byproducts in a creative way," Edens said. He's looking to turn the biomass discarded by fisheries - heads, entrails, bones and such - into useable, marketable products, such as fuel for diesel vehicles. "As...
Drivers on Zimovia Highway will see new signs this summer instructing them to keep their headlights on at all times, regardless of season or the time of day. The signs will be installed by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) on Zimovia Highway between the Case Avenue and Nemo Point Road intersections. Seven Southeast communities were chosen for the new signs, including Haines, Ketchikan, Juneau, Petersburg, Sitka and Prince of Wales Island. According to the ADOT&PF press release, the highway corridors chosen...
The borough staff returned to normal levels Tuesday with the addition of Finance Director Lee Burgess. The position had been vacant since the borough assembly named former finance director and Interim Borough Manager Jeff Jabusch to the manager post permanently Nov. 12. Jabusch announced the new hire to the borough assembly at the Feb. 11 assembly meeting. Jabusch has essentially performed both functions since the borough assembly accepted former manager Tim Rooney's resignation June 25. The...
Students from the Tatoosh School, a Klawock and Portland, Ore., based educational outfit specializing in studying the “ecological and human dimensions of the landscape of Alaska’s Inside Passage,” made a stop last week in Wrangell with their instructors, Dr. Peter Chaille and Erin Steinkruger. The school’s program, which runs for six week sessions June-September, offers college credit of up to 12 units for students and teaches the foundational skills of wilderness sea kayaking and camping, with...
PETERSBURG — Southeast Alaska Power Agency CEO, Trey Acteson, provided a presentation during the Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting on Monday night outlining the services and mission of the SEAPA organization. Acteson stated that SEAPA’s mission is to provide the lowest wholesale power rate consistent with sound utility planning and business practices. SEAPA exists for the long-term benefit of the member utilities and the rate payers, providing unified regional leadership for project development and prudent management of the int...
The newly built Alaska Island Community Services clinic underwent its final inspection last week by a team of professionals from across the State of Alaska in preparation for the facility opening in early December. Project superintendent Mike Ashton said the inspection went as planned and only involved minor items as the clinic nears its opening. “We had four different inspectors show up and they went through the building and looked at mechanical and electrical systems,” Ashton said. “The elect...
For a group of three Midwesterners, the wilds of Alaska are about to become home again for 41 days as part of the Alaska Island Community Services’ Alaska Crossings program. Rachel Feerick of Wisconsin, Jesse Mogler of Iowa, and Ellen Barr of Minnesota, have signed on for the next-to-last outing of 2012 as field guides for the organization and will be working with a group of nine adolescent participants from across Alaska. All three have previously worked in the field for the wilderness-based b...
After more than a year of site development and construction, a new clinic facility for Alaska Island Community Services is set to open in mid-September. The new clinic, located on Wood Street, will practically double the number of examination rooms and nursing stations available to clients. It cost nearly $4 million to build, which included development of the previously muskeg-filled property where it now sits. “That $4 million included site development, which was pretty extensive,” said AIC...
There is an old adage that workplace romances never work. But, what if you brought your romance into the workplace – and held mutual dreams and goals for your life and career? That is precisely what two clinicians at Alaska Island Community Services are doing in the Crossings program. Bethany and Lee Burgess, a married couple who are Licensed Clinical Social Workers in the program, met in college in Michigan and, as the pair says, they fell in love and made their career goal a life’s passion – t...
In November 2011, the Alaska Island Community Services “Crossings” program went through a metamorphosis when it was forced to shed a group of nine full- and part-time core staff members. Employees from Crossings, the largest wilderness therapy program for emotionally at-risk teens in the State of Alaska, received letters on Friday, Nov. 4, 2011 telling them their positions were being eliminated due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Those circumstances related to procedures regarding Medicai...
January The Wrangell School Board found $128,451 in additional, unspent funding from a federal program. In passing their 2011 budget, the board also accepted an $8,300 grant for the Upward Bound program. Master carvers Steve Brown and Wayne Price visited Shakes Island to begin discussions on the renovation of the Tribal House and to propose a traditional tools class. The US Forest Service began a scoping project for an Environmental Impact Study regarding timber sales and road construction for...
The decade-old Alaska Island Community Services “Crossings” program may be searching for its soul in the coming months after a round of federal budget cuts cost a number of employees their jobs last week. A group of nine full- and part-time core staff members from the program, the largest wilderness therapy program for emotionally at-risk teens in the State of Alaska, received letters on Friday, Nov. 4 telling them their positions were being eliminated due to “unforeseen circumstances.” The let...
