Sorted by date Results 501 - 525 of 828
A new director for the Nolan Center was named late last week, with Cyni Crary to begin in the position later this month. Crary has been the executive director at the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce for most of the past eight years, coming with a background in business administration. “I have many ideas for potentially increasing revenue and evaluating the work flow process to create efficiencies and growth,” she said in a statement. “I’m excited to explore new ideas with the team while continuing to advocate on behalf of Wrangell.” On the hiring,...
This year’s Independence Day festivities are set to start Saturday morning, kicking off five whole days of activities. Organized by the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce, the celebration is a high mark on the community’s annual calendar, typically drawing in hundreds of visitors. Every year’s observance has a theme, and 2018 will call attention to our shared resources and the opportunities they provide: “Thankful for our Great Land.” “Which could mean our local land, or our country,” said Cyni Crary, executive director at the Chamber. A logo captur...
The hunt is on for a whole crop of high-level management positions in different city departments. The City and Borough of Wrangell is in the early stages of finding replacements for the heads of the Nolan Center, Wrangell Municipal Light and Power and Public Works, plus the city’s top accountant and a newly-created maintenance lead position. The tidal wave of turnover started on April 16, when WMLP superintendent Clay Hammer stepped down in order to head projects for Southeast Alaska Power Agency. City manager Lisa Von Bargen reported the s...
For the first time since 1995, Wrangell will be hosting the annual shareholders’ meeting for Sealaska Corporation this weekend. Formed in 1972 after the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act had been adopted the previous year, Sealaska has become the largest of 13 regional corporations subsequently created in the state. The corporation represents 22,000 Native shareholders from among the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples, of which 254 live in Wrangell. Headquartered in Juneau, Sealaska manages 650,000 acres of tribal lands and makes i...
It's a royal rumble this month, with the competition to see who gets crowned this year's king or queen of Wrangell's Independence Day celebrations starting off on May 31. Arranged by the Chamber of Commerce, the competition is meant to raise funds both for the summer festivities and for the candidates themselves. Typically individuals have used what they raise to support higher education or some other project. This year's group is no exception. Recent graduate McKinley Bosdell intends to head...
After a series of meetings and public presentations last week, a proposed acquisition of Wrangell Medical Center by a regional health group looks more probable. Southeast Alaska Rural Health Consortium has expressed interest in administering the municipal hospital, which has been in a prolonged state of financial difficulty. At the Wrangell Assembly's most recent meeting last Tuesday, WMC chief executive officer Robert Rang reported having only 13 days' cash on hand with which to cover...
May Mary Schmohl, 71, passed away on Mother's Day, May 13, 2018 in Wrangell. She was born on May 17, 1946 in Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. A Native Tahltan of the Crow clan Edzerta family, she was the daughter of the late Mona Keso, also of Wrangell. Heritage was important to her and she regularly returning to her ancestral home throughout her life reconnecting with culture and family. After moving to Wrangell as a young child, she attended Sheldon Jackson High School in Sitka, Alaska, and... Full story
A series of meetings between Southeast Alaska Rural Health Consortium and the City and Borough of Wrangell are planned for early next week. The regional health group is entertaining making an offer to assume control of Wrangell Medical Center, a municipally-run critical access hospital which has in recent years fallen into financial difficulties. Starting Sunday afternoon and lasting through Tuesday, SEARHC will hold a series of meetings with city staff, hospital transition steering committee members and the wider community, in order to go...
At a public presentation at the Nolan Center on Monday, staff with the Department of Environmental Conservation and its contractors updated Wrangell on the status of a proposed monofill site on the island. A designated monofill to house around 18,500 cubic yards of contaminated earth from the former Byford junkyard is planned to be sited at a state-owned rock pit. Accessible by Forest Service roads along Pats Creek, the project’s nearness to the popular fishing stream has been a point of c...
Crowned this year's queen and king, Helen Decker and Riley Blatchley receive court at Wrangell High School's prom, held Saturday evening at the Nolan Center. The Class of 2018 will be graduating 17 seniors this year....
Construction of a designated monofill site to store treated soil from a contaminated site cleanup will begin next week, after nine months’ delay. To be interred at a state-owned rock pit off Pats Creek Road, the site will house around 18,500 cubic yards of earth pulled from the former Byford junkyard property along Zimovia Highway’s 4-Mile stretch. During 2016 the Department of Environmental Conservation led efforts to remediate the disused junkyard, which had extensive contamination after decades of battery and junk vehicle storage. The sca...
At last week's 21st annual Stikine River Birding Festival, increasing public involvement in conservation efforts was a strong theme. The festival's focus always centers around the diverse bird species found around Wrangell and the Stikine River, highlighting different ways for residents and visitors alike to understand and enjoy them. From birdwatching to outdoor photography, using them thematic in the arts or enticing birds to backyards with self-built houses and feeders, the birding festival...
Next week the Wrangell Assembly is scheduled to parse over its line items and budget figures for the coming fiscal year. Bound drafts were handed out to members at their Tuesday evening meeting, to digest before a pair of sessions set for May 1 and 2. As it stands now, the biggest change to come from the upcoming budget effective July 1 will be consolidation of maintenance and facilities services under a new capital facilities department. Separated from Public Works, the new department would also manage major projects and grant implementation....
Wrangell’s annual birding festival is gearing up for a week of activities late next week. This year’s Stikine River Birding Festival will be the 21st, put on cooperatively each year by Wrangell’s Convention and Visitor Bureau and the United States Forest Service. Highlighting birding opportunities on the Stikine River, the event also encourages wildlife conservation and is an opportunity to hone new skills. “This year we’ve brought back more of the art and photo aspects of the festival,” said Corree Delabrue, an interpreter with the USFS Wr...
If it proves financially feasible, Wrangell Medical Center may soon pass from municipal ownership to new management. At a public meeting held inside the Nolan Center on Monday evening, representatives of the City and Borough of Wrangell and the hospital explained WMC is in pretty dire straits at the moment. WMC chief executive Robert Rang said the facility has been having increasing difficulty meeting costs to operate. "The hospital's been losing money for several years," he reported....
An important roundtable discussion on the future of public health care provision in Wrangell is set for this weekend, followed by a community meeting Monday night. At the behest of the City and Borough Assembly, a steering committee made up of representatives of a half-dozen stakeholder groups is in the process of being formed. From the assembly itself, Roland Howell and Patty Gilbert will be joined by Dan Neumeister of Southeast Rural Health Consortium and Mark Walker from its Alaska Island Community Services clinic; Jennifer Bates and Olinda...
A free showing of a documentary highlighting the hazards of mining on transboundary rivers drew a pretty decent crowd Monday evening, with seats at the Nolan Center filling up fast. Released last year, "Uprivers" is the first film made by Matthew Jackson, of Ketchikan. Jackson previously has spent time in Wrangell working with the Alaska Crossings program, and his presentation of the film is part of a broader tour of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. Prior to showing his 30-minute work,...
Residents and city employees sat in on some crisis response training sessions last week, outlining proactive responses to conflict. James Nelson, now working as an officer with Wrangell's Forest Service office, led the courses at the Nolan Center March 15 and 16. He used to serve on the Wrangell Police Department, a position he had first taken in 2008. With scheduling in the works since last fall, his presentations last week were being done on behalf of the city, primarily for the benefit of...
The Forest Service held a public input session with Wrangell residents last week, as it puts together ideas for a 10- to 15-year project to benefit the Wrangell and Petersburg districts of the Tongass National Forest. The Central Tongass Landscape Level Analysis would plan for a major project on a large scale that would increase the number of activities authorized in a single analysis and decision. It reflects a larger effort nationwide to improve the USFS environmental analysis process, and...
The Wrangell Museum added a new piece to its public gallery, an antique cannon. Not that the piece itself is new, thought to be close to two centuries old. Nor is it newly acquired, donated in 2002 to the museum by nonagenarian Bruce Johnston, a former resident then living in Ketchikan. Handed over before the museum's transition over to the Nolan Center, during the shift the cannon wound up in one of the many scattered caches of items kept around town. By now settled, museum staff have over the...
Wrangell Medical Center Foundation last month issued a letter to supporters informing them it would forgo its annual fundraiser weekend this year. For the past ten years the Brian Gilbert Memorial Golf Tournament and fundraiser dinner is hosted in Wrangell each May in order to raise money for the Foundation. The Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to support the community’s medical needs. The funds it handles fills a few roles, primarily supporting WMC’s bid for a new facility but also procuring new equipment, funding its cancer-related tra...
Wrangell Medical Center’s annual health fair is coming up, with a month of discounted blood tests available at the hospital in the month leading up. Starting back on Monday, five of the tests the hospital’s laboratory administers have been reduced in cost ahead of April 7’s fair. The screenings include a coronary risk profile, which measures blood and cholesterol counts. The screening for hemoglobin A1C can be helpful for diagnosing pre diabetic conditions, and is useful for monitoring the long-term care of persons already with diabetes. Two sc...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly and City Hall staff held a roundtable discussion Tuesday evening about reorganizing several departments in light of upcoming retirements and departures. City manager Lisa Von Bargen offered suggestions for shaking up the structures currently giving form to the Nolan Center, Public Works and Wrangell Municipal Light and Power. The ultimate focus would be to improve the maintenance attention given to existing public facilities while keeping within other budgetary and...
City staff from several departments were surprised to learn of one late resident's generosity. At its meeting in early December, the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau discussed news that Marian Glenz had bequeathed a considerable donation to it. Details at the time had yet to be worked out, but at the Borough Assembly's February 6 meeting, City Manager Lisa Von Bargen had confirmed the contribution totaled $50,000. Born in Wisconsin in 1936, Glenz spent her youth in Port Protection, Ketchik...
Ordinarily highlighting new developments in Wrangell’s economy, the Chamber of Commerce’s 28th annual fundraiser dinner was dedicated to something different this year. Decorating the Nolan Center ballroom in black and red last Saturday, the theme for 2018 was “Honoring the Spirit of Service,” dedicated specifically to the men, women and youths who devote so much of their time to Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department. “I can’t think of a better group to honor than those that serve,” said Cyni Cra...