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The top of the Mariners' Memorial gazebo was installed last Monday, July 20. The memorial has been a long-running project to recognize Wrangellites who have lost their lives at sea....
More progress has been made on the Wrangell Mariners' Memorial. The memorial is an ongoing project to recognize Wrangell sailors who have been lost at sea. Jenn Miller-Yancey, with the Mariners' Memorial Board, said that the past month has been spent getting foundations for the memorial completed. She also reported that a lot of progress on the memorial's gazebo has been made. The skeleton of the gazebo is up already, and the foundations for the memorial walls are complete. The shape of the...
The Wrangell Mariners' Memorial project is moving along at a good pace, according to Brennon Eagle. The memorial has been a long-running project for the community, beginning back in the early 2000s. According to the memorial committee's website, Wrangell High School seniors worked to identify a suitable location and design for the memorial, meant to recognize Wrangellites who lose their lives at sea. The Wrangell Mariners' Memorial Committee achieved tax-exempt status as a nonprofit in 2017....
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....
The City and Borough Assembly: Three Year Tearm Julie Decker is seeking re-election to the Wrangell Borough Assembly for a three-year term. There are several reasons she wants to sit for another term on the assembly. The current borough assembly has been making some good decisions on behalf of the city, she said, and she would like to see that continue. As a member of the assembly, she said that she has tried to stay informed and lead in a way that benefits the city as a whole. She added that...
The Wrangell Mariners' Memorial Board brought in a little less than $5,000 with their annual fish fry last month. Proceeds like this are going towards the mariners' memorial by Heritage Harbor, dedicated to Wrangellites who have been lost at sea. Construction has been ongoing in increments for several months, but more funds are still needed. According to Jenn Miller-Yancey, with the memorial board, they are hoping to raise an additional $6,000 by Oct. 1. Back in July, the mariners' memorial...
The Wrangell Mariners' Memorial, an ongoing project to build a memorial to honor Wrangellites who have been lost at sea, has made several big steps forward. Jenn Miller, president of the Mariners' Memorial board, said that they have raised enough funds to begin the next steps of laying the memorial's groundwork. "We have Brett Woodbury and Russ McGee working on the groundwork for us," she said. "We actually spent our first money out of the account on materials, on rebar. That is on the barge as...
The Wrangell Mariners' Memorial Board held its second annual auction at the Stikine Inn last Saturday evening. The auction, to raise money for a planned memorial to honor Wrangell seafarers, had over a dozen items in both a live and silent auction. Many people from across town came out to support the memorial and to bid. This was the second year in a row for the board to hold an auction. Board Member Brennon Eagle gave the public a short update on the memorial and the organization before the...
The Wrangell Port Commission held its monthly meeting on Feb. 7 to hold a public workshop on the Mariners' Memorial. Members of the community have been working towards a memorial for Wrangell sailors lost at sea for almost two decades, according to the Mariners' Memorial group website. Some progress has been made towards the memorial, with the ground being broken at the proposed site last December. The workshop was called together to discuss the details of the memorial. One of the details that was discussed heavily was who, exactly, should be...
As many people in Wrangell are surely aware, Alaska is cold in the winter. While others may bundle up or drink lots of coffee to fight the cold, there is another group that embraces it. The Wrangell Polar Bear Club will be holding their annual plunge at Shoemaker Park on New Year’s Day. Aleisha Mollen, with the club, said that this is the 19th annual polar bear plunge for Wrangell. On Jan. 1, at 1 p.m., participants will run chest deep into the ocean, dunk themselves, and stand in the cold water for a full minute. Those who make it the full m...
One of a pair of pipers play the first few verses to "Amazing Grace" on May 20, following a Blessing of the Fleet jointly held during a Mariners' Memorial fundraiser. Straddling an overlook between Heritage Harbor and Zimovia Strait, organizers for the new memorial hope to see ground broken by next year....
The steering committee for an upcoming mariners’ memorial will be holding its first spring fundraiser this weekend. Taking advantage of the warmer weather, an outdoor fish fry event has been scheduled for 5 p.m. this Sunday at Heritage Harbor. The meal will also feature a silent auction for a number of submitted items. A monument dedicated to Wrangell’s seafaring traditions and its community members lost at sea has been a goal for a decade and a half. After financing designs for a memorial at Heritage Harbor, by early 2017 the Port Commission e...
The organizing committee for a planned mariners’ memorial will be holding a winter fundraiser this weekend. A monument dedicated to Wrangell’s lost mariners has been in the making for over a decade. The Port Commission took off with it in 2009, and helped shepherd the concept through the drafting stages, which were completed in 2015. An independent steering committee was subsequently organized, and after receiving tax-exempt status last fall has begun raising money from individuals and businesses to construct the memorial. Committee member Bre...
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...
Celebration of the state’s sesquicentennial anniversary next week in Wrangell will be on the quieter side, with the 16th annual senior luncheon and yearly flu clinic both scheduled. Island of Faith Lutheran Church is inviting area seniors to join them for lunch next Wednesday at noon. “We kind of started it when our church was newly built,” said Joan Kading, a parishioner. “It seemed like a way to honor the senior citizens of Wrangell.” The informal meal has featured homemade soups and bread, with both a vegetarian and carnivorous option to...
A steering committee for a proposed memorial is seeking out public support for the project. A memorial dedicated to Wrangell's lost mariners has been a longstanding ambition for a number of residents. The current project took off over a decade ago, after a group of high school seniors worked on identifying a location and a design for a memorial. Their effort was prompted by the death of Ryan Miller, a local fisherman whose vessel capsized while in Clarence Strait back in 2005. Wrangell's Port Co...
Before summer gives way to autumn, several Wrangell business owners decided to have one more hurrah downtown with food and live music. Set for Sunday afternoon, "Warm August Nights" was thought up by Heidi Milazzo, Clay Culbert, Lucy Robinson, Brooke Leslie and Brenda Schwartz-Yeager. "All of us have been working on it together," said Milazzo. "We just wanted to have a fun family event." Culbert pointed out the lull in local activities around August, with not much by way of entertainment...
Senior students at Wrangell High School presented their end-of-year projects for parents, faculty and other passersby last week at the school gym. Twenty-four members of this year's graduating class worked on a variety of assignments to meet their core requirements. School activities director Bill Bradley explained the projects are self-driven, and encourage students to give back to the community as best they can. Projects are at least 25 hours each, which can be difficult to arrange when...
Going on six years in the making, a steering committee has been assembled to develop a memorial dedicated to Wrangell mariners, and is starting to solicit donations for its construction. The five-member committee was assembled at the behest of the Port Commission, which after commissioning designs for the new memorial thought the next step would be best handled by a private corporation rather than the city. Memorial committee member Brennon Eagle explained taking that route would make it easier...
Wrangell’s Port Commission gave its go-ahead to a tidelands purchase proposed by the Stikine Inn’s owners. Bill Goodale, who jointly manages the dockside hotel with his wife, Cheryl Goodale, appeared at the February 2 meeting to explain his proposal. He wishes to purchase from the city 25,450 square feet of submerged tidelands and 2,000 square feet of uplands to the north and west of the hotel’s current property line, with the intent of expanding and adding to the building. “We’re hoping for 30 rooms, plus retail space on the lower floor,” G...
Things are coming together for a planned memorial dedicated to Wrangell's seafaring community. The Port Commission last week named two more people to the steering committee tasked with fundraising and contracting for the Mariners Memorial's construction. Fishermen Brennon Eagle and Gig Decker will be joining commission members John Yeager and John Martin on the committee. A fifth position is still vacant, and interested applicants are invited to submit a letter to the city clerk's office. The...
Students in Wrangell High School's marine fabrication class are putting the finishing touches on some new designs. A longstanding program continued under current industrial arts teacher Drew Larrabee. The course gives high schoolers the opportunity to design and construct aluminum boats for themselves, applying the math and physics skills they've learned in the process. Third-year student Brian Schwartz is welding the hull on a 17-foot jet scow of his own design, which should be finished by or...
Meeting last week for the first time since June, Wrangell’s Port Commission set some priorities for its coming sessions. “We have a number of items we’re going to have on our plate,” explained commission president Clay Hammer. Of these, the three largest issues will be organizing a steering committee for construction of a new mariners memorial, reassessing the duration of lot leases at the Marine Service Center, and managing public access to the boatyard. The longest in the works, construction of the memorial weighed highly among commiss...
The City and Borough of Wrangell has officially endorsed a plan being put forward by the United States Forest Service concerning future timber sales on the island. In a special meeting on July 15, the Borough Assembly gave its input on a letter of support being drafted by economic development coordinator Carol Rushmore. A final copy was formally submitted to the Wrangell Ranger District on Monday, the last day of the public comment period for its Wrangell timber sale’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement. The DEIS puts forward five alternative...