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A shark thrashes its victim; legs poke out the end of rolled-up carpet; a skeleton rides a giant spider; a haunted house catches fire. Decorations are up around Wrangell to welcome the spookiest time of year, and for one couple their longtime decorating endeavors saw a truly frightening outcome. Jeff and Kay Jabusch have dressed up their front yard on Oceanview Drive for nearly four decades. "We started in the garage, went back about six feet, put bars there, and I dressed up as something,...
It gets so heavy, sometimes you just want to put it down is how Virginia Oliver describes preserving the Tlingit language. "You want to cry," she said, "because it feels like your brain is going to explode. But then, your Elders just tell you, 'It's too heavy right now, just put it down for a little while and pick it back up.'" The international Endangered Languages Project and a U.N. agency estimate there are 200 fluent Tlingit speakers left, but the majority of the sources for that data are a...
Filling out an election ballot isn’t very hard. Ink in the ovals, being careful to stay within the lines, and then turn in the single-sided piece of stiff paper for counting. It’s not much to ask of residents once a year. Wrangell holds its municipal elections next Tuesday. And while several races are uncontested, three school board seats and a borough assembly seat will be decided by voters. This is a chance for residents to have a say in the direction of the borough and the school district, which combined spend more than $10 million a yea...
From building smokehouses and gardens to assisting with utility and food bills, the Wrangell Cooperative Association has been working to help its tribal citizens make it through the financial and emotional stress of the pandemic. "We took a hard look at what the WCA citizens were facing with the pandemic," said Esther Ashton, tribal administrator. That included financial needs and helping to build food self-sufficiency, she said. The eight-member elected tribal council last year considered how...
B.C. mining industry meets highest standards State Rep. Dan Ortiz's letter to the editor in the Sept. 2 Sentinel about British Columbia's mining regulations is misleading and largely inaccurate. Continuous improvement is foundational to B.C.'s mining sector - in environmental management, community engagement, operational efficiency, innovation and more. The fact is B.C.'s mining industry meets some of the highest regulatory standards in the world for environmental assessment, operational...
The Alaska Symphony of Seafood competition is back and the call is out for entries. The contest has showcased new products since 1994 but was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It encourages value-added seafood production and promotes high-quality Alaska products that are coming into the marketplace. And we help promote those across the country and the world. There isn’t anything else like this for Alaska seafood,” said Julie Decker, executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation which hosts the event. A panel...
Did I format my entire letter saying goodbye to Wrangell so I could put a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" reference in the title? Yes, yes I did. Looking back on the past three years of my life, I noticed how many of my fondest memories revolve around seafood in some way. Discovering the miracle that is smoked salmon, going fishing with my friends, watching the bears at Anan fatten up on salmon, friends and neighbors offering to share their catches of crab with me, getting to cover an autopsy...
After a two-week delay due to an incomplete property appraisal, the borough assembly has approved the lease for a new cell tower. The first tenant of the new tower near the city landfill will be Verizon Wireless, though additional carriers could be added later. The lease was delayed from the assembly’s July 27 meeting to wait for the appraisal. Lease fees on borough land are based on property value. The lease will be $645 a month. The payments to the borough will increase if more cell providers are added to the tower. The assembly approved t...
Just like so many other events returned to Wrangell’s Fourth of July this year, the Chuck Oliver Logging Show was back after taking a COVID-19 year off. Oliver started the show in 1975, and he and his family members ran the event off and on for many years, featuring logging skills and tools common in the timber industry, a callback to the days when Wrangell was a logging town. Randy Oliver, Chuck’s son, retired in 2019 after the 45th logging show, and Tom Roland and his crew of volunteers too...
Friday, July 2 3-on-3 Basketball: Start at 10 a.m. At the covered play area behind Evergreen Elementary School. Chairperson: Christie Good Art Clark Scrap Fish Derby: 11 a.m. City Dock Summer Float Two age categories: 6-9 and 10-13 Rules: No parents allowed on floats unless they are one of the volunteers. All children must wear a life jacket at all times. Hand lines only; no rods or reels. One hook per line; one line per person. Contestants must bait their own hook. Any kind of bait can be... 
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Actually, the hot dogs will be cold dogs. A new event at this year’s Wrangell Fourth of July celebration will be a wiener toss, planned for 8:30 p.m. July 3 on Front Street. Sponsored by radio station KSTK, the toss will offer prizes for unusual tosses, not necessarily the longest toss or last to drop the dog, said Brittani Robbins, executive director of the chamber of commerce. “It’s throwing raw hot dogs at each other,”she said. While the long holiday weekend is just a week away and plans are set for most events, the chamber, which organizes...
A fun tradition for Wrangell’s grown-ups is returning this Saturday, with the 2021 Adult Prom. The party will start at 8 p.m. at Muskeg Meadows Golf Course. The prom is an opportunity for locals to get out, dress up and dance the night away, said Lucy Moline-Robinson, with KSTK, which is sponsoring the event as a fundraiser for the radio station. “I felt there was a need for that, Wrangell doesn’t have a lot of adult-type dances,”she said. The prom was not held last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Robinson said. In 2019, it was held at the...
A conditional-use permit for construction of a new cell tower at the north end of town was approved by the planning and zoning commission last Thursday, after a consulting health physicist working for the developer testified that the tower’s radio signals would not pose a health risk. “I’m a board-certified health physicist, I’ve been an expert in this area for a whole long time,” said Andrew Thatcher, of Lakewood, Washington, introducing himself to the commission June 10. “I was the expert for the state of Washington for about 20 years.” The...
The borough assembly has rezoned several lots adjacent to Wrangell’s solid waste transfer site, allowing installation of a cell phone tower on the city-owned land if the developer can obtain a conditional-use permit for such use of the property. A public hearing and further consideration by the Planning and Zoning Commission is required for a conditional-use permit. The assembly, in two unanimous votes May 25, approved rezoning the seven parcels to open space / public zoning, and allowing communication facilities, including cell towers, as a c...
Wrangell Sentinel reporter/photographer Caleb Vierkant won second place for best sports photo in the 2020 Alaska Press Club competition. The photo in the March 5, 2020, Sentinel, “Wolves host Haines for last home games of the season,” features the basketball team cheering and high-fiving Hank Voltz as he walks onto the court. Voltz, a now-graduated senior, has a heart condition that kept him from playing. He served as team manager but was brought onto the court for the opening of the final home game of his career. Voltz went on to score the...
The annual Stikine River Birding Festival starts Friday and includes movies, a morning walk to identify birds, video presentations, virtual storytelling from the library, a session on how to build a bird feeder, a community cleanup and a nature trail scavenger hunt. Activities run through May 8. Organizers are spreading out the events this year, rather than squeezing everything into four days as was the schedule in 2019. The pandemic forced cancellation of last year's activities. "We have been m...
Radio station KSTK, instead of its traditional cooking competition, will hold a chili feed at 11 a.m. Saturday at the downtown pavilion. Winners of KSTK's past cook-offs will serve bowls of their winning chili for the fundraising event. The chili cook-off is a longstanding tradition in Wrangell, said Lucy Moline-Robinson, with the radio station. It started back in 2000, she said, when the station invited several residents to prepare a pot of chili and compete to see who could make the best....
Stikine Middle School students explained to a statewide audience how they are using technology to cope with the pandemic-induced changes in their education. Members of the sixth grade class spoke at the Alaska Society of Technology in Education virtual conference Feb. 16, talking about ways technology has helped them learn throughout the year. The organization promotes access to technology information resources for Alaska students. Laura Davies, teacher for the sixth grade class, said she and...
December 17 Jamie Roberts, with the Wrangell EOC, reported that there are currently no active cases of COVID-19 in the community. Statewide, Alaska’s case count is 41,859 as of yesterday. This is an increase of 3,151 from last week. Wrangell received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 16. According to SEARHC, following guidance from the Alaska Vaccine Advisory Council, vaccinations will be given to frontline health workers first, along with first responders, and l...
Wrangell's Dove Tree was set up in the downtown pavilion last week. The tree, an annual tradition by the Hospice of Wrangell, serves as a holiday memorial for loved ones who passed away that year. Community members are invited to visit the tree, write the names of loved ones on dove ornaments, and hang them on the tree. As of Dec. 7, over 50 doves are hanging on this year's tree. There was no in-person ceremony for the Dove Tree this year, due to COVID-19, but an on air ceremony was held last...
While this holiday season may look different with the COVID-19 pandemic, several Wrangell traditions are still going strong. The public will still be able to participate in the annual Christmas Tree Lane, though there will be some changes. The Dove Tree ceremony is still moving forward, as well. Christmas Tree Lane is a yearly fundraiser for the Hospice of Wrangell. People and organizations across the city donate uniquely decorated Christmas Trees, and then others can place bids on them to take...
The Prysunka family, Dr. Lynn and Mayor Steve, met with KSTK and Wrangell Sentinel reporters on the afternoon of Oct. 20 to talk about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Wrangell has seen a total of 20 cases of the virus since the pandemic began. The most recent case was announced on Sept. 14. All of these cases have recovered, though, and Wrangell has not seen an active case in about a month. However, across the state and the country, cases continue to rise. The Alaska Department of Health and...
The Wrangell School Board met Monday, Sept. 21. Two major topics of discussion during this meeting were the high school swim team, and whether or not students could travel for activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several people spoke at the meeting, calling for the school district to fully fund the swim team, to add the coach's position to the schedule of extracurricular activities, as well as to remove the schedule of extracurricular activities from the negotiated agreement process. Jamie...
After June Leffler left KSTK to move back down south last month, the local radio station has operated without a reporter. Leffler's replacement, Sage Smiley, arrived in town last Sunday. "I'm really excited to be here," she said. "I think that Southeast is a beautiful place, and that Wrangell seems like a really wonderful and close knit community. I'm excited to be a part of it and get to report, do what I love here." Smiley got her start in radio in Utah. She said she has worked in a variety of...
June Leffler has been a common sight at many meetings and events around Wrangell for almost three years. As a reporter for radio station KSTK, she played a role in keeping the public informed of everything going on around town. Her time in Wrangell has come to an end, however, as she left for the Lower 48 last Monday. "I just kind of gave myself until this summer, regardless of any jobs that came up, so I'm going," Leffler said. Leffler came to Wrangell to continue pursuing her career in public...
