Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 200
Last week's borough assembly meeting, on April 28, only had a few items on the agenda. The majority of the meeting was spent receiving comments on the COVID-19 situation from the public and some assembly members. Joan Sargent, of Island of Faith Lutheran Church, led the invocation for the meeting. Afterwards, she also shared her comments on the pandemic and the community's response to it. She wanted to share with the public that the Irene Ingle Public Library, which has been serving as a hub to...
As the COVID-19 virus continues to impact the world, and Alaska, many people are doing their part to mitigate its spread. People are working from home, self-isolating, and social distancing. A recent health alert by the state of Alaska recommends that people begin wearing face masks when in public, as well. "Scientific evidence available to date indicates that asymptomatic and presymptomatic shedding of the virus that causes COVID-19 is occurring," the April 3 health alert reads. "This means...
With the ongoing spread of COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, many communities across the nation are doing their best to be prepared. This is also true in Alaska. There are only a few confirmed cases of the virus in Anchorage and Fairbanks as of March 17. All across the state, however, communities are taking precautionary measures to keep the virus from spreading further. In Wrangell, many events and facilities have been postponed for the sake of caution. "As a preventative measure to...
A Wrangell home caught fire last week, and firefighters suspect a candle is to blame. The fire occurred around 3:45 p.m. last Thursday. The residence, home to Jim "Bear" Jenkins and his son Josh Jenkins, is located on Second Street, next door to the Irene Ingle Public Library. The Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department responded to the call quickly, and had the fire put out shortly after 4 p.m. Nobody was home when the fire began however, the Jenkins' dog, Rowdy, was inside at the time....
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday, Feb. 25, to have a follow-up work session on staffing issues at the Irene Ingle Public Library and the Nolan Center. As covered in a Feb. 13 article of the Sentinel, the assembly has been considering how best to resolve staffing questions at both facilities while also keeping everything as affordable as possible. During their last workshop, the assembly considered a number of options for an empty assistant position at the library. The Nolan Center has...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Monday, Feb. 10, to workshop some staffing issues at the Irene Ingle Public Library and the Nolan Center. The assembly originally planned to hold a special assembly meeting right after the workshop, but instead decided to just have the workshop and revisit the topic at a later meeting. An assistant position is currently open, one of three permanent positions the city maintains at the library: Library Director, Assistant II, and Assistant I. The Assistant I...
Past microfilms of the Stikine River Journal, the Fort Wrangell News and the Wrangell Sentinel will be digitally archived using a $8,250 grant that Wrangell Cooperative Association applied for and received from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. About 18,500 images are set to be digitized by APEX Covantage and will meet the same standards as the Alaska State Library's historical newspaper documentation program, according to Tribal Administrator Esther Ashton. Issues from the Stikine...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly organized a work session to discuss a recently vacated position at the Irene Ingle Public Library. There are three primary jobs at the library: Library Director, Assistant II, and Assistant I. The "Assistant II" position was recently vacated. It was proposed to promote Sarah Scambler, then Assistant I, up to the Assistant II position. This would leave the Assistant I position open, which the library planned to post as available and search for a new hire. However,...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association held an award ceremony at Wrangell High School Monday evening, Sept. 30. Tribal Administrator Esther Ashton, along with several members of the WCA board, organized the ceremony to officially give several local organizations a check from the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium's "Healthy Is Here" grant. In total, $10,600 was given to 17 organizations. "The reason we're here today is that we received from SEARHC a Healthy Is Here grant," Ashton said....
September 11, 1919 One of the prettiest war souvenirs we have seen was received this week by Wrangell man, O. A. Brown, from the American Can Company. The shell is of brass, over three inches in diameter and 2 ½ feet in length. The following note accompanied the souvenir. “When loaded for service the brass case contains the propelling charge of smokeless powder, which shoots the steel to an extreme range of four miles. The steel shell is filled with high explosive, usually T.N.T., which is caused to explode when striking the target or gr...
The Irene Ingle Public Library is gearing up for their annual summer reading program once again. The program has been running for over 20 years, according to Library Director Margaret Villarma. She said it is designed to hone kids' reading comprehension even when they are not in school. "It's important for them to do the reading program because if they don't read over the summer they lose some of what they learned the previous school year," she said. "They call that 'summer backslide,' I think...
Andrea Thomas, patient health benefits manager with SEARHC, gave a presentation at the Irene Ingle Public Library last Thursday on the basics of Medicare. As many people know, Medicare is a government-run health insurance program. There is a common misconception that Medicare is reserved only for people 65-years-old and older. Thomas said in her presentation that this is not true. In fact, anyone under the age of 65-years-old with certain disabilities, end-stage renal disease, or Lou Gehrig's disease also qualify for Medicare. The purpose of...
Ernestine Hayes, author of "The Tao of Raven," "Blonde Indian," and "Juneau (Images of America)" was in Wrangell last weekend to host a writer's workshop. She also visited with Wrangell residents at the Irene Ingle Public Library at a meet-and-greet on Friday....
The Wrangell Borough Assembly recognized the Lady Wolves high school basketball team during their meeting on Tuesday evening for their hard work over the recent season. Mayor Steve Prysunka, in reading a proclamation congratulating the team, pointed out that the Lady Wolves took first place in regionals, defeating Metlakatla, for the first time in 25 years, and that numerous team members had received several awards and accolades over the course of the season. "I, Stephen Prysunka, mayor of the...
Ernestine Hayes said that she was raised as the only child of a single mother who was an avid reader. Growing up in Juneau in the '50s, she said, having her mother read to her was one of her main inspirations for becoming a writer. "The best way to become a writer is to be a reader," she said. Hayes and her mother moved to California when she was 15, according to Hayes' website, but when she was 40-years-old she "resolved to go home or die with my thoughts facing north." Her first book, "Blonde...
Mary Ann Phillips, 65 and a lifelong Wrangell resident, passed away February 5, 2019 in Zihuantanejo, Mexico while on vacation with her family. She was born on November 18, 1953 in Bishop Rowe Hospital to Maurice and Mary Buness. She attended Wrangell Public Schools until her family moved to the Tacoma area in 1964. She returned to Wrangell with them in January 1970 and made her home here since. After graduating from Wrangell High School, she attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She...
BRAVE is a Wrangell-based organization that works to connect people with resources to help themselves and their families. Their work was put on display last Tuesday night at the Nolan Center as a "family resilience fair" was held. The fair brought together about 20 organizations that offered one form of support for Wrangell families or another. The organizations ranged from religious groups, medical organizations, government entities, and sports groups. Organizations that participated include...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday night to hold a meeting that was rescheduled from July 24. Before getting into new business, the assembly heard a request from Lavern Lawrence, who lives at 4.2 mile. Lawrence said that she and her husband live right next door to the dump, and have had several health issues arise because of it. She came before the assembly because she said her doctors have requested they get a toxicology report to rule out what could be causing some of these health...
Irene Ingle Public Library will be holding an open house next week, serving up cake as a way of celebrating National Library Week. On March 13, Wrangell Mayor David Jack proclaimed the week of April 8 to be dedicated to libraries. Institutions of learning available to the whole community, they are not only repositories for books but provide internet access, educational programming and other resources visitors may benefit from. All next week, Jack encouraged residents to stop by their library and maybe say a quiet word or two of thanks. To mark...