Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 258
Homecoming weekend went well for the students at Wrangell High School, with girls basketball winning both their games against visiting Petersburg, and the boys getting a split after two hard-fought games. For their last regular season games the Lady Wolves started the weekend with a real nail biter, taking things into overtime. Friday's game started off well enough with the team taking an early lead, which the Lady Vikings shaved down to three points by the half. Petersburg propelled itself ahea...
The Wrangell Wolves chalked up a pair of losses last weekend hosting the Metlakatla Chiefs, though it easily could have been a split between the two teams. Friday's evening game was a blowout for the Chiefs, which controlled the court for much of the game. Though the final score ended up in a 52-42 win for them, Wrangell coach Cody Angerman acknowledged some last-minute catching up had helped close a larger gap between the two teams. By now in the second half of the season, the teams' meeting...
The Wolves won two games over Craig High School during a pair of home games last week. Hosting the Panthers during the middle of the week, on February 7 Wrangell started off with a close first period, Craig trailing their 14 points by two. The home team stepped up its defense in the lead-up to the half, holding Craig to another 12 points as its offense picked up 25. Leading 39-24, Wrangell kept its edge during a closely-scored second half, holding an 18-point lead by the final buzzer for a...
Another year begins this week, and 2018 both holds promise and poses challenges to Wrangell residents. Economic trials will perhaps be of the greatest concern as state coffers seem set to dry up and fishing forecasts continue to disappoint. Limits to funding sources will be of particular bother as the borough continues to address an aging infrastructure, though securing state funding for the Shoemaker Bay Harbor refurbishment and an expected start to the belated Evergreen Road repaving should...
The girls and boys basketball teams brought back no awards but learned some lessons in a preseason tournament in Ketchikan last week. The Clarke Cochrane Christmas Classic is a longstanding Ketchikan tournament, typically held between the holidays. As with previous years, Alaska teams paired off with schools from as far afield as New Mexico ahead of their regular season openers. The Wrangell High School boys opened the tournament on December 28, matched up with Washington’s Anacortes High School. A well-regarded team in its own division at h...
After volleyball's silver-place showing at State last month and as the wrestling team wraps its own season, Wrangell High School's basketball program is already practicing for its new year. After bidding goodbye this spring to its coach of 30 years, the boys team will be headed up by a new coaching staff this season. Cody Angerman will be replacing retiring Ray Stokes as head coach, and Graham Gablehouse has been hired as assistant coach. Both men grew up in Wrangell, and are familiar faces on...
At Wrangell’s regular meeting of the Borough Assembly Tuesday, members opted not to withdraw their opposition to a proposed timber sale package. The United States Forest Service has over the course of years been putting together a timber sale for Wrangell Island, of which it manages 93 percent of the borough’s land area, which has been nearing its final stages. In August the city responded to the project’s final draft record of decision with an objection letter. After speaking with staff, Tongass National Forest supervisor Earl Stewart propo...
A local grocery store bid official farewell to its manager of nearly 50 years. Since March of 1968, Chet Powell made sure the shelves at Wrangell's City Market were properly stocked and its employees kept busy helping customers. Originally from Springdale, Arkansas, Powell first got into the grocery business at the age of 14, coming to work for his uncle, William Norton, at his market in the Seattle area. "He was the one that taught me the grocery business," Powell recalled, getting his start fi...
Bad luck came in threes for Wrangell's Public Safety Building last month, the latest in a long line of problems with the facility. A failing elevator, water damage and a colony of carpenter ants have disrupted activity at the building, home to the city's emergency services, courthouse and Department of Motor Vehicles office. The first setback, that of the elevator, occurred on August 14. "As far as the elevator is concerned, we had a power outage," said Amber Al-Haddad, head of Public Works. A...
A Wrangell café is raising funds for disaster relief, following the hurricane and deadly floods affecting Texas last month. Zak's Cafe owners James George and Katherine George-Byrd plan to send all earnings from their Tuesday and Wednesday sales this week to a response fund benefitting Hurricane Harvey victims. On August 24 the storm system became the first category 4 hurricane to make landfall in the United States in over a decade, and the biggest in Texas since Hurricane Carla in 1961....
Alaska sea cucumber divers could be helping to cure cancer! Sea cucumber meat and skins have long been considered a delicacy in Asian cuisines; they also are hailed for having healing properties that soothe sore joints and arthritis. Most recently the soft, tubular bottom dwellers are being added to the list of foods acclaimed to kill cancer cells. Dried sea cucumber or extract is anti-viral; anti-bacterial, and an anti-inflammatory, said Ty Bollinger, a leading cancer expert and author of Cancer: Step Outside the Box. “Sea cucumbers are v...
The symposium at last week's Bearfest was an opportunity for experts in bear-related research to share some of their knowledge about the different species, as well as highlight the work they have done in their different fields. Lance Craighead of Montana's Craighead Institute has been a longtime supporter of Wrangell's annual festival, which celebrates the area's robust bear population. Speaking last Wednesday, the environmental advocate sought to convey how people directly affect and often thre...
With activities for Alaska Bearfest 2017 already underway, running enthusiasts are gearing up for its finale on Sunday. This year’s Bearfest Marathon-1/2-5K will be featuring three separate but concurrently run events, with participants taking on either the five-kilometer (3.1 miles), 13.1-mile or 26.2-mile runs. The start time is at 8 a.m., outside the Nolan Center, but day-of registration opens up at 7 a.m. Becca Rice has been organizing this year’s event, which has been a component of Wrangell’s bear-related celebration for its past eight...
Wrangell’s utility users were advised last week to start being more conservative with their water usage, with the city going into the first phase of its emergency response plan. The plant which has treated the city’s municipal water supply for most of the past two decades has in recent years been having trouble keeping up with peak demand, which locally is during the summer. Ongoing problems with the aging facility came to a head last year, with a shortage prompting a declaration of disaster by the mayor in July and emergency conservation measu...
Want a fishing license to crew on a salmon boat this summer? Got friends or family visiting who want to wet a line for a prized Alaska catch? Don’t count on it. If the Alaska legislature continues to defy its constitutional obligation to pass a budget, those opportunities will be lost because there won’t be any state workers to issue fishing licenses. Layoff notices went out on June 1 to thousands of state employees who will be off the job at the July 1 start of the fiscal year. That’s just one of the lesser impacts of the legislative impasse,...
Members of Wrangell’s Port Commission have set a timetable for themselves for reworking how lot leases at the boatyard are arranged. At their meeting Monday, commission chair Clay Hammer and harbormaster Greg Meissner said they are putting together an ordinance proposal to consider after the summer season winds down. In its drafting stages, it would reflect discussions held last year and feedback from various yard contractors. The conversation has been an ongoing one for a year and a half, and the commission had previously intended to settle t...
School may be out for the summer, but the local library is still trying to keep books in students’ hands with its seasonal reading program. Beginning June 1, the Irene Ingle Public Library’s summertime program encourages kids from ninth grade on down to continue to read for fun and study by assigning point values to individual volumes. During the months of June and July, participants have a chance to take computerized tests on what they’ve read, with passing grades earning points toward a seasonal total, which in turn translates into ticke...
The opening of a planned assisted living and senior housing center has been pushed back by a couple of weeks, its owners say. Shannon Bosdell said a Certification of Occupancy from the state is needed before Harbor House can open its doors to residents. First announcing the venture back in December, he and co-developer Daniel Blake were expecting an April 1 start date. “It got pushed out by a week, week and a half,” Bosdell said. Formerly the Sourdough Lodge, once certified, the Peninsula Avenue facility will be able to accommodate five assiste...
The city should be better prepared to meet its water needs this summer, the Borough Assembly learned last week. City manager Jeff Jabusch brought members up to speed on where Wrangell Public Works stands with its water plant situation. Last July the community was put into a state of high anxiety when its supply of potable water was reduced to less than half a tank, while the water treatment plant was unable to keep up with demand. A longstanding problem with the system has been its filtration method, relying on slow sand filtration....
When Southeast Conference meets for its annual Mid-Session Summit in Juneau later this month, among the items high on its list for discussion is the structural reform of Alaska's ferry system. Southeast Alaskans have become dependent on the state's Marine Highway System since its establishment in 1959, essentially becoming their road network into and out of the region. It is a significant economic driver for the coastal communities it services as well, with an estimated impact of just over $103...
This session, I am honored to be serving as Chair of the House Finance Department of Education and Early Learning Budget Subcommittee, which reviews Alaska’s education budget. In this capacity I will closely examine Alaska’s school funding, and the unique programs and services that support effective learning. My years as a Kayhi teacher and coach, as well as a principal at the elementary level, offer a good base for understanding the practical impact of budget decisions. I understand the value of education for our students, and its imp...
Wrangell’s high school basketball boys won one and lost one in a match-up at Haines last weekend. The boys played a pair of close games against the Glacier Bears. In Friday’s game, the Wolves followed just behind through much of the first half, with Haines up by two at the start of the second quarter. By halftime Wrangell had eked out a 22-21 lead after a seven-point quarter from Trent Stokes and points contributed by Tyman Teat, Jacob Hammer and Sam Prysunka. Riley Blatchley dominated the court offensively for the next 16 minutes, sec...
Pending a judge’s sign-off, the Wrangell Borough and its public employees union are abandoning the courtroom for the negotiating table, after a productive settlement conference held last week in Ketchikan. The city and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 have been at odds over renewing a collective bargaining agreement, which for 24 public employees expired the end of June 2014. Mediation undertaken through the spring of 2015 did not resolve the dispute, and by that summer legal representation became involved. Efforts t...
