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The borough assembly met Tuesday night, Nov. 12, for their only scheduled meeting this month. The meeting opened with a work session on Wrangell's local contractor policy. The policy was established in 2015, according to the meeting's information packet, and the borough wanted to start the process of seeing what needed to be clarified, updated, and changed. After the work session, the assembly got into their regular meeting to cover a wide range of topics. Three that stood out were a memorandum...
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,...
As anyone who has lived in Wrangell can attest, the sea is an important part of life. Many Wrangellites make their living on the ocean, be it fishing or operating a charter boat. Even if they do not rely on it for a living, many people in town enjoy taking boats out on the water. To showcase this fact of life for Wrangell, and to bring to life part of its history, the Nolan Center will be opening a new exhibit: "Wrangell Remembers - Shipwrecks Close to Home 1908-1952." "It is very important to...
The Friends of the NRA will be hosting a banquet in Wrangell this Saturday, beginning at 5 p.m., at the Nolan Center. This has been a highly attended event in previous years, with many Wrangell residents coming out for good food, auctions, and the opportunity to buy or win new guns. Greg Stephens, NRA field representative for Southern Alaska, said he believes this will be the fourth year in a row they have held a banquet in Wrangell. It has always been a sold-out event, he said, and he expects...
Monday, Oct. 7, members of the Forest Service and high school oceanography students, boated over to the east side of Wrangell, near Channel Island, to retrieve the remains of a gray whale that washed up back in June. The whale, a 30-foot male, was one of the victims in a UME, or "unusual mortality event" that has seen numerous gray whales die. According to NOAA, as of Sept. 30, there have been 47 gray whale strandings in Alaska, or 212 across the whole American, Canadian, and Mexican west...
The Nolan Center, Wrangell's museum, convention center, and theater has announced a new monthly program for moviegoers young and old to enjoy. Starting Thursday, Sept. 19 at 6:30, the public is invited to "Throw Back Thursday" movie night. The monthly program will provide people with dinner and a nostalgic movie from days gone by. "It's something that Cyni [Crary] thought up when she first took over her director position last year, and once I came on as the manager here we were able to...
Wrangell's Economic Development Committee met for the first time in almost a year last Thursday, Aug. 22, according to EDC Chair Julie Decker. Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore said that the committee is meant to meet quarterly, but that she didn't want to call together meetings just for the sake of having meetings. With two recent developments that are likely to impact Wrangell's economy, though, a meeting was finally organized. The two main items on the evening's agenda were in regards to the Wrangell Cooperative Association's...
One of the central parts of the annual Bearfest celebration are the symposiums. Experts on bears and bear-related subjects are invited to come speak in Wrangell each year. This year saw several such speakers, including Lance Craighead who spoke on federal and state regulations on bear conservation, Harry Reynolds on the endangered subspecies of Gobi Desert brown bears, and John Nary on bear observation challenges at the Mendenhall Glacier. A roundtable discussion was held on Thursday, July 25,...
Suicide is an important topic in Alaska, as the state has one of the highest suicide rates per capita in the country. According to the Statewide Suicide Prevention Council, in 2014 there were 22.3 suicides per 100,000 people across Alaska. As such, several community members have wanted to know how they can help those around them who are struggling with suicidal thoughts. Along with some cafe-style discussions on the topic of suicide prevention put together by SEARHC, “safeTALK” training was held at the Nolan Center last Thursday and Fri...
The Nolan Center hosted a grand opening presentation for its most recent exhibit last Tuesday, July 16: "Muybridge in Alaska: 1868." The exhibit has been traveling around the state this year, first being shown in the Alaska Native Heritage Museum in Anchorage, then in the Sheldon Museum, in Haines. The Nolan Center will house this exhibit until the end of August. "Muybridge in Alaska" is, among other items, a collection of photographs taken by Eadweard Muybridge of Southeast Alaska in the late 1800s. These are some of the first photographs of...
The Wrangell Community Orchestra met at Evergreen Elementary School last Saturday morning to practice for an upcoming performance during Bearfest. The orchestra will be playing at the Nolan Center on Sunday, July 28, at 3 p.m. for the last day of the festival. Pictured here is Jack Roberts and other violinists practicing "March of the Dwarfs."...
Amy Gulick is an acclaimed nature photographer and writer. According to her website, amygulick.com, she has 20 years of experience taking pictures and writing about the great outdoors. She specializes in helping people understand the interconnectedness of nature, her website reads, and why conservation is important. Some of her written works include "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge" and "Salmon in the Trees." Her most recent book, "The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind," looks at the...
Alaska Bearfest is a fun half-week of activities and workshops in Wrangell. Running from July 24 to 28, people can look forward to an art workshop, bear safety courses, bear-themed symposiums, and even a marathon. This year, the Wrangell community will also have the opportunity to eat better than even the bears at Anan do, with a special seafood dinner on July 26. The dinner will be hosted at the Stikine Inn, and prepared by Chef Dana Tough of Seattle. According to his website,...
A town hall meeting was held at the Nolan Center last Wednesday evening, July 10, to discuss ongoing water issues in Wrangell and the wider Southeast Alaska region. In short, drought conditions across Southeast Alaska have made conservation necessary for the community. Dry weather has also an impact on Wrangell's supply of electricity, as well. "Part of the reason we're here today is because we, Southern and Southeast Alaska, are experiencing an extreme drought," Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen...
Carla Louise Abild (Johnson), 53, passed away on April 18, 2019 in Owensville, Missouri. She had great artistic ability, was intelligent, and had a right to the line sense of humor that could get anyone laughing. Carla was preceded in death by her father, Lewis Oliver Johnson. She is survived by her long time friend and partner, Mike Tindall; her mother, Mable McMurren; and three sons, Stephen and Eric Purvis, and Jared Abild. There will be a memorial service and potluck held in Wrangell at the...
The Nolan Center, Wrangell's museum, movie theater, and cultural center, is hosting a new exhibit. "Muybridge in Alaska: 1868," is a collection of 16 original stereo views of Southeast Alaska, taken by pioneer photographer Eadweard Muybridge. These are some of the first known photographs of the region ever taken, according to a press release from the Nolan Center. "He was commissioned by the US government as part of an expedition led by Major-General Henry W. Halleck to photograph native...
A call went out on the police scanner around 12:45 p.m., July 8, about the Nolan Center flooding. The Nolan Center is Wrangell’s museum, movie theater, tourist destination, and conference center. The fire department responded to the call quickly, finding a broken sprinkler pouring water all over the center’s floor. While the fire department was able to shut off the water within minutes of arriving on the scene, water continued to pour out of the broken sprinkler for quite some time. Keeleigh Solverson, Nolan Center employee, said that the spr...
Wrangell Police Chief Dough McCloskey was honored by the borough assembly last Tuesday night, in recognition of his upcoming retirement. McCloskey came to Wrangell in 1992, after a career as a police officer and as a Merchant Marine with the Coast Guard. He joined the local police department in 1992 as a police officer, and was appointed chief of police in 2003. He has served as chief since then, for the past 16 years. As he has announced his intention to retire, the assembly made a...
The Fourth of July brings many fun events to Wrangell. From the logging show to the street games, it is hard to be bored in Wrangell the week of the Fourth. One event that people should be very excited for, according to Bonnie Ritchie, is the annual talent show. The talent show has been a part of the Fourth of July Celebration for many years, Ritchie said, who has been chairman of the talent show since last year. This year the talent show will follow the celebration's wider theme of "Back to...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association, along with Corvus Design and SALT, a consulting team, held a workshop at the Nolan Center last Thursday, June 13. The workshop was part of the Administration for Native Americans grant project, which has been led in Wrangell by Ruby McMurren and Talea Massin of the WCA. The project was designed to look at ways to prevent the out-migration of the native community in Wrangell. Through several meetings with community and tribal leaders, McMurren and Massin...
With old-time music playing in the background, and friends and family all talking and laughing together, Pastor Kem Haggard of Harbor Light Assembly of God welcomed everybody to the Diamond Club Celebration. The party, hosted at the Nolan Center, brought together eight Wrangell couples who were the guests of honor for the evening. A married couple's sixtieth anniversary is also known as the "diamond anniversary," as the couples are traditionally supposed to buy each other diamond jewelry....
