Sorted by date Results 601 - 625 of 793
A region-wide campaign is kicking off, so to speak, with opponents of British Columbia mining projects collecting as many pairs of Alaska’s ubiquitous rubber boots as it can. Once assembled, the mountain of footwear will be deposited on Gov. Bill Walker’s lawn later this month. Collection locations have been set up in Petersburg, Sitka and Juneau, and in Wrangell donation boxes have been set up at Marine Artist Brenda Schwartz-Yeager’s shop and other local stores. The campaign is being driven by Inside Passage Waterkeeper, a Juneau-based affil...
The City and Borough of Wrangell is taking applications for this year’s borough-wide regular election, set for Oct. 6. Up for contest this year are two 3-year seats on the Assembly, currently held by Daniel Blake and Julie Decker. The two three-year Port Commission seats of John Martin and Clay Hammer will expire in October, as will the four-year terms of Dorothy Hunt-Sweat and Woody Wilson on the Wrangell Medical Center Board. Tammy Groshong’s three-year seat on the School Board expires in October, and there will be two other vacant sea...
In fits and kicks, with each passing year technological innovations continue to change the way people live, work, recreate and perceive the world. Many of these changes can go unnoticed by the average consumer, like a slightly longer-lasting battery or the stapleless tea bag. Other technologies that have today become virtually indispensable only a few decades ago were conceivable only in the realm of science fiction. Smartphones are one such example, transforming the way Americans communicate...
Members of the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) board’s special hiring committee met at the Nolan Center Wednesday morning to sort through a sheaf of resumes received over the preceding weeks. A replacement chief executive officer for the hospital is being sought, after interim CEO Marla Sanger announced last month she will not continue in the position after October. Her employer, PeaceHealth, issued a statement that it would not seek to renew its management contract with WMC after Sanger’s departure. Made up of members of the hospital board, the...
Frederick Clarence Angerman Sr., passed away on June 27, 2015, after a long struggle with cancer at the age of 82. Born September 3, 1932, Fred was the second of four children to Austrian immigrant parents Fritz and Helen Angerman, which they raised on "Angerman's Corner." Fred acquired his parent's tireless work ethic, as his family claimed he "hadn't taken a day off since 3rd grade." After Fritz suffered a stroke in 1949, Fred took over the family business, Royal Blue Cab, at the age of 17 to...
The Wrangell and Petersburg museums are teaming up in an attempt to identify several hundred individuals in a collection of photographs that dates back more than seven decades. The Clausen Museum in Petersburg is hoping to put names to the faces of 1,474 individuals from the early 1940s as part of its ongoing World War Two project. The museum possesses a collection of photographic negatives, originally used for wartime identification. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, the United States entered the war already e...
Board members and staff with Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) met last week to begin the search for a new hospital head. Interim CEO Marla Sanger last month announced her intention to step down on October 30, and contractor PeaceHealth has indicated it will not continue its management contract with WMC. “This was new to us, and we wanted to explore the options that we have,” explained Barb Conine, the board’s treasurer. The executive meeting was called specially, as the board’s regularly-scheduled meeting on June 17 was cancelled. Meeting at the...
It was a sold-out show at the Nolan Center last Friday, as over 200 Wrangellites packed themselves in to watch the New Old Time Chautauqua, a vaudevillian group of performers based out of Washington. The traveling troupe is passing through Southeast Alaska on a summer tour – the "AKqua Chautauqua" – its first visit to the state since 1992. Nolan staff had only planned for a crowd of 160, but word-of-mouth and a pair of parades through town on Thursday and Friday had sparked considerable int...
Bob Prunella Wrangell's own "master of ceremonies and auctioneer extraordinaire" has taken his final bow. After a brief, brave, intense bout with metastasized pancreatic cancer, Bob died May 26th 2015 at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, WA. He leaves behind a huge Alaskan wake of accomplishments, friendships, and remembrances. Bob brought his Eastern education (Penn State) to Wrangell in 1958, where he helped pioneer and steer our "willful" community towards bigger and better things. Bo...
Despite dimming income over the past fiscal year, board members for Southeast Alaska Power Agency were informed the future is still a bright one. At its June 18 meeting in Ketchikan, CEO Trey Acteson reported SEAPA remains financially strong and well-positioned leading into the next fiscal year. Sales revenues through last month were $1.3 million below budget, or about 12 percent. While weather volatility has played a hand in the shortfall, a consistent drop from anticipated power consumption by Ketchikan through the 2015 fiscal year has also...
At its last meeting for the summer, Wrangell’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board approved a new fee assistance schedule for using public facilities. Parks and Recreation Department director Kate Thomas explained the new assistance schedule would allow applicants up to a 100-percent discount for a specific activity each quarter, depending on income level and household size. For example, a three-person household making $26,120 or less could receive a 50-percent discount on an activity or 75-percent off from a pass. Guidelines follow the s...
Results are in for 63rd annual King Salmon Derby, held in Wrangell from May 9 to June 7. Chad Smith will take home the $6,000 prize for the 42.7 pound salmon he caught off Ham Island on May 24. He also bagged the $2,500 Memorial Weekend prize in the process. Just behind him, Tim Dodson took second place with a 40-pounder caught off the Nose on May 20. Along with the $4,000, he won the $500 prize for week two, and the $250 Art Clark Pioneer Prize for largest fish entered by a senior. Kevin Roope...
A new display was set out in the lobby of the Nolan Center last week, featuring the artwork of the late Marlieta Wallace, a Wrangell artist. The exhibit features some of the Mardina dolls Wallace made during the 1980s, created by the hundreds in her home. Constructed from a variety of leathers, furs, feathers, felts and beads, 16 of the dolls are on display in a case outside the Wrangell Museum gift shop. The larger dolls are unique, part of Wallace's Grand'Mere doll series. Each of these came...
The New Old Time Chautauqua is still set to stop through on its summer tour of Southeast Alaska later this month. Founded in 1981 by a group of performers, health care practitioners and educators, the Chautauqua revives a brand of entertainment widely popular in the rural United States until the Great Depression. As a movement, the Chautauqua emphasizes community building through education and entertainment. Sixty performers will stop into Southeast communities between June 21 and July 13 for...
Borough Assembly members were presented the final form of Wrangell's waterfront master plan before their Tuesday evening meeting. The plan is the product of progressive public discussions and meetings in January, February and March. The core concept is to fill the 2.5-acre area located between the barge and boat yards parallel to Campbell Drive, which the Harbor Department obtained a permit to develop from the Army Corps of Engineers in 2007. Beyond that, the master plan looks ahead at developin...
Members of the Wrangell chapter of Alaska Ducks Unlimited (DU) were pleased to announce they raised $8,000 for conservatory causes at the 30th Annual Fundraising Banquet on May 2. “We did well. It was a successful dinner,” explained Keene Kohrt, on the DU chapter’s committee. The Stikine Inn was hired to cater the dinner, and an assortment of hunting and recreational items were sold through silent and live auction. Kohrt estimated that in addition to the money the group raised, the event put $6,000 into the local economy. The state’s habitat...
The Wrangell Museum at the Nolan Center is open once again, after shutting down for two months for cataloging. Museum Director Terri Henson explained that all the items in the collection have been photographed and logged in Microsoft Excel. "There were a hundred (items) in there alone," she said of the museum's main gallery. Eventually the full collection will be inventoried and available for review online using the PastPerfect system. The cataloging software is currently used in 9,500 museums...
The weekend's 18th annual Stikine River Birding Festival had plenty of sunshine, baseball and a Tax Free Day to compete with but nevertheless drew good crowds for a variety of activities. The festival highlights birding opportunities that the region affords. Southeast Alaska is a major destination for long-distance migrations, as its diverse landscape is a hot spot for species declining elsewhere. The Stikine River area sees over 120 species of birds during migratory periods, and shorebirds...
At last weekend's Stikine River Birding Festival, residents and visitors flocked to the Nolan Center to learn more about their feathery, flighty neighbors. While there were birding tips, arts shows and craft displays to enjoy, the festival also took on a more serious note regarding threats to the future of species' populations. Of particular concern for marine species are the short term and cumulative effects of discarded plastics. On Friday evening, University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA)...
This year's Head Start class graduated another set of students on Tuesday, the latest batch since Wrangell's program began in 1985. The program finished with 19 students this year. Five days a week, they spent mornings preparing for grade school from September until May. "We have 11 graduating, and the rest are coming back to Head Start," explained Sandy Churchill, Wrangell's program director. Federally funded through Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (CCTHITA), the program...
Before the advent of the King Salmon Derby and summer vacation season, Wrangell residents are invited to enjoy the first of two annual Tax-free Days on Saturday. “Twice a year we petition the city to have no sales tax,” explained Cyni Waddington, with the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce. The days give consumers a temporary reprieve from the borough's seven-percent sales tax, and area businesses often use the day to offer special discounts and case lot sales. The last day was held in October to coincide with Permanent Fund Dividend disbursements, w...
At its monthly board of trustees meeting April 15 Wrangell Medical Center, CEO Marla Sanger revisited public discussions about the future of healthcare services held earlier this month. Some 30 residents attended the discussion, facilitated by Anchorage consultancy Foraker Group at the Nolan Center April 2. “It was worth attending. I learned lots,” said board treasurer Barb Conine. “The people that came were really curious,” Sanger commented. WMC has applied for Foraker’s assistance with predevelopment work for building a new hospital,...
